


Dearest, Darling

by lils21051



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Criminal Minds Setting, Behavioral Analysis Unit (Criminal Minds), Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Hurt Spencer Reid, Slow Burn, Smut, Spencer Reid Angst, Spencer Reid Smut, reid x oc - Freeform, slowburn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-17 22:40:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 19
Words: 41,997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28732833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lils21051/pseuds/lils21051
Relationships: Spencer Reid/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 29





	1. Chapter 1

"Hey, can you hold the doors, please?" A soft voice shouted to me. I looked up, holding a hand out to top the doors from closing as a tall, lanky man stepped into the lift next to me. 

"Thank you," he smiled at me, adjusting the strap of his bag on his shoulder. 

"You're welcome," I replied, offering a small smile back. He reached in front of me to push the button for his floor only to drop his hand back down at his side as he realised, I'd already pressed it. An awkward silence hung in the air and I glanced sideways at the strange man, he was so tall, I barely reached his shoulders. 

The lift doors opened, and the tall man hurried out and I followed him but stopped in my tracks as I took in my surroundings. I swallowed hard, feeling very overwhelmed all of a sudden by the utter chaos of the bullpen. 

"Are you looking for Hotch's office?" The man asked, turning around to look at me. 

"Agent Hotchner? Yeah," I nodded. 

"It's just up those stairs, first door on your right." He offered up another small smile in encouragement before walking off towards his desk. 

"Thank you," I replied, heading in the direction that he'd gestured in. My felt boots awkwardly heavy as I made my way up the staircase. 

"You must be Special Agent Dr Madeline Parker," the man said as he opened the door. He stuck a hand out to me, "I'm Supervisory Special Agent Aaron Hotchner, pleasure to have you on our team. I've heard excellent things about you."

"Please, call me Maddie but thank you, I'm excited to be here!" I replied, trying not to blush at the compliment as I shook his hand. I followed him into his office, sitting myself down in the seat opposite him

"Here is your badge, your gun and your work phone and earpiece. Garcia's sorted everything out so you should be able to contact all of us with no problem," he explained, sliding the items across the desk to me. 

"Thank you, sir."

"If you don't have any questions, how about I show you to your desk and introduce you to the rest of the team?"

"That would be great," I replied, standing up after him, "lead the way."

As we descended back down the stairs, I couldn't focus on anything Agent Hotchner was saying to me due to the intense, not so subtle stares I was getting from a group of people stood gathering around a desk.

"Alright everyone, I'd like you to meet SSA Dr Maddie Parker, she's just transferred from Scotland Yard to join our team here." Hotch announced to the group. 

"Hi, it's nice to meet you all," I grinned, as they were all still staring at me, including my mysterious lift man.

"Oh my gosh, you're British _and_ a doctor?" A bubbly blonde-haired woman squealed as she bounced over towards me, "that is _so_ cool!" she giggled, pulling me in for a tight hug.

I just giggled back in response, returning her embrace. 

"This is Penelope Garcia, our technical analyst," Hotch explained. "And this is Special Agents David Rossi and Derek Morgan,"

"What's up, princess?" Morgan said with a small nod as I smiled at the two men. 

"Special Agents Emily Prentiss and Jennifer Jareau," he continued on, making his way around the group of people. 

"Call me JJ," the blonde woman said with a polite smile as she shook my hand. 

"And this is Special Agent Dr Spencer Reid," he said, finally gesturing to my mysterious elevator man. 

"Nice to meet you, Maddie," he said softly, a small smile playing on his lips. I could feel everyone’s eyes on me, trying to work out who I was. 

"You don't look anywhere near enough to be a doctor in medicine so, what is it?" Emily questioned, grinning at me.

"Erm, Mathematics," I replied, sucking in a deep breath. I saw Spencer’s head snap towards me. 

"Where did you study?" He asked me, eyebrows furrowed.

"I got my bachelor’s in psychology and Chemistry from the University of St Andrews and then I did another bachelor’s in biology and my Masters in Maths at Oxford and I did my Ph.D. at Cambridge," I said, flashing him a cocky grin. Spencer smiled at me and I heard Derek whistle and mumble something that I couldn't understand. "What about you?"

"I have bachelor’s in psychology, Philosophy and Sociology and Ph.D.’s in Chemistry, Engineering, and Mathematics from Caltech," he responded proudly. My mouth twitched slightly as I stared at him in amazement. I liked this boy.

"Oh my god, there's two of them..." Emily mumbled, looking between myself and Dr Reid, earning a small laugh from everyone except the two of us.

"Looks like you've got some competition pretty boy," Derek mocked, slapping Spencer playfully on the back before making his way to his desk like the rest of the team.

I sat down at my own desk, which was next to Spencer’s and started unpacking some of my belongings before starting on the stack of case files that was already waiting for me.

"Don't worry, you'll be fine. The first day's always the worst," Spencer said, offering me a small smile which I returned. 

~

"I can't even lie," I whispered to Spencer as he handed me a mug of coffee, "I am having a proper fangirl moment over the fact that I am working on the same team as David Rossi! As in _the_ David Rossi whose books, I read when I was 20 and have multiple copies of in my apartment."

He grinned at me from across the table. We were sat having our lunch break together after spending the whole morning talking about which Mathematical theories, we liked the most, our favourite books and psychological approaches. It was nice to be able to talk about those weird kinds of topics with someone, I could tell Spencer and I were going to be good friends.

"Do you think it would be weird if I asked for his autograph?" I laughed, taking a huge sip of my coffee. I was only partly joking.

"Just a little bit," Spencer replied. "Why did you leave England?" 

"I was bored, there was not enough field work at Scotland Yard. I worked there for just over two years and not once did I feel like I was doing my job properly, sat at my desk all day. I just kinda needed a change."

"England to America is definitely a change," he muttered in response.

"I know, I hadn't actually planned to move countries," I sighed, "but when I was offered this job, it was too good to turn down."

"What did you-" Spencer started but was cut off by the sound of both our phones going off. "That's Hotch, he wants us in the conference room. We have a case." I followed him up the stairs, unable to contain my excitement over finally having some proper work to do. 

~

It was lucky I wasn't a squeamish person, the images that flashed up on the screen were nothing like I'd ever seen before. I shifted in my seat uncomfortably, trying to focus on all the details in the file in front of me. 

"This is 21-year-old Samantha Gibbons who was found with her throat slit, among a bunch of other horrific injuries in Oakland, California." Garcia started, pressing a button on her remote so the screen behind her changed to display a different set of images, although equally as disturbing. "We think she may be connected to these other 4 women who were all found murdered and beaten in the same area. They we're all reported missing and then two days later their bodies showed up."

"Clearly, this unsub is hunting a specific type, all brown-haired blue eye girls." Derek announced, taking a big sip of his coffee.

"And they were all last seen in a public setting, one that they passed every day?" I asked, trying to process at the thoughts going through my brain. 

"Yes, Samantha was last seen by her friend walking to her car at her college, but she never actually made it to her car," Garcia explained.

"It's got to take a fair amount of strength to do that kind of damage to someone, I would say my odds are this unsub's male." Rossi suggested, pointing to the nasty bruising that was covering all of the victims’ bodies.

"Not necessarily," I stated, cringing as I disagreed with Rossi. "These victims were all small and weak, not the kind who would be able to any damage if they tried to fight back. And, if you look closely at their wrists and ankles they have as slight bruising as if they'd all been restrained in some way. A woman could just have easily done this kind of damage, especially seeing as most of the wounds are superficial, although the bruising looks bad there's not actually much hard damage been done. Except for the cutting of the throat, which again wouldn't necessarily take much strength."

"I agree, plus the fact that victims were all taken from public settings that were part of their normal routine. The unsub must have known their victims, either from stalking or they knew them personally," Spencer added, nodding enthusiastically.

"Exactly! You know, studies have shown that 80% of female serial killers know their victims, and it would be much easier for a female unsub to get these women to trust them and take them without it drawing attention from the public. If the unsub was male, it would have caused too much of a scene. As well, if the unsub was male, there's a 75% chance that he would be hunting for sexual gratification and none of these women showed any evidence of sexual assault that we know of." 

"Excellent, we can discuss this further on the jet over there. Wheels up in 30." Hotch stated before leaving the room.

"You guys have a jet?" I gaped, packing up my stuff.

"Welcome to the BAU," Emily said as JJ linked her arm with mine and pulled me off towards the jet with them.


	2. Chapter 2

I splashed cold water on my face, glaring at the image that stared back at me in the mirror. My long blonde hair flowed down my back, curling at the ends. Despite my mum and her whole side of the family being Greek, all with black hair and dark features, my brother and I both somehow ended up with long blonde curly hair and bright green eyes. We blamed my dad and his simple English genes. I'd changed my top for a simple white t shirt in preparation for the hot California weather. Pulling my hair into a neat ponytail, I emerged from the bathroom and took my seat on the jet opposite Morgan.

I took a shaky breath, trying to calm my nerves. It felt like my mind was going 100 miles an hour, going through every possible explanation for what was going on, I hated not being able to turn my brain off.

"You know, it's normal to be nervous about your first case. I'd be more worried if you weren't," Derek smirked at me, clearly sensing my anxiety despite my efforts to hide it. Stupid profilers.

"I'm not nervous, it's just a lot you know. I'm just a bit overwhelmed, I think. There was hardly any field work back home, I pretty much just sat at a desk for two years." I started chewing on the inside of my cheek.

"I'm surprised they're even letting you out in the field now, you're absolutely tiny!" He cocked his head at me, chuckling to himself. 

"I bet I could still kick your arse blindfolded though."

"Oh, come on Princess, don't go starting something you can't finish. You look like you can't even hold a gun," he smirked, eyes twinkling with laughter. It made me relax a little bit.

"I got 100% on my firearms test, you cheeky bastard. _And_ I have 15 years of training in gymnastics and martial arts so, watch your back Morgan."

"Of course, you did, princess. God, that's not intimidating, or anything is it?" He shook his head, laughing softly still.

" _I'm_ intimidating? Derek, your arm is literally the size of my whole body!" I laughed back at him as he flexed his muscles even more at me. The flirty banter with Derek was a perfect distraction, he seemed to realise it too as he managed to keep me at ease for the rest of the flight.

"Okay, Parker, Morgan and Rossi, I want you guys to head to the police department, find out what you can there and start working on a geographical profile." Hotch began, as the jet landed. I turned and looked at Spencer with wide eyes at the mention of Rossi's name, he just sat there grinning at me. "Reid and JJ, I want you two to go see the body at the scene and then to the morgue. Prentiss and I will speak to the family and friends, see if there is any link other than just appearances between the victims."

"Do you need to borrow a pen and some paper for when you get his autograph?" Spencer whispered, his eyes sparkling as he grinned from ear to ear at me.

"Piss off," I hissed through gritted teeth, "I'm obviously not going to ask him to sign a piece of paper for me when we're at work!" Spencer just raised his eyebrows at me. "I've got his newest book in my bag for him to sign on the flight back." I winked at him and he burst out laughing. I just shoved him playfully before calling him an idiot and climbing into the car with Rossi and Morgan.

~

"You must be Dr Parker!" A rough looking man exclaimed, holding a hand out to Rossi. "It's a pleasure to have you here! I'm Detective Howell, I'm running this case here." 

I refrained from rolling my eyes as I stared at the man, who was wearing a suit that was about two sizes too small for him. I watched the buttons on his shirt strain as he moved, worrying that they were about to pop off and hit me in my eye. 

"Actually, I'm SSA David Rossi," Rossi explained, shaking the detectives hand. 

"Oh, I'm sorry," he mumbled as he turned to Morgan, holding a hand out to him. Morgan just stood there, staring at him with a disapproving look on his face.

"Special Agent Dr Madeline Parker," I announced, unable to bite my tongue any longer, "and this is Special Agent Derek Morgan." I held out a hand for him to shake as I clenched my jaw.

" _You're_ Doctor Parker?" He questioned, looking me up and down. "Sorry, I just didn't expect you to be er... this young!" He gave me a poor attempt at an apologetic look as he smiled. "Or British!"

"Do you have a conference room we can work in? And a clear acrylic board for me to write on?" I snapped, ignoring his remarks. I could see Morgan holding back a smile as we followed Detective Howell into the room, he had set up for us. 

I managed to mutter a polite thank you to the detective before setting up my map and pictures on the board. Morgan and Rossi sat down at the table, discussing details of the case with the oversized detective, who would not stop giving me weird looks from across the room. 

I'd just finished drawing out what I already knew on the map, circling all of the places the victims had last been seen and the places they had been dumped when my phone rang, with Spencer's name flashing across the screen. 

"Hey," I answered, "you're on speaker."

"Hey," Spencer’s voice echoed through the room. "None of the victims had any sign of sexual assault and but what's weird is that they all had large amounts of chlordiazepoxide hydrochloride in their systems when they died."

"That's a sedative, right?" Rossi asked. I nodded, and then realised that Spencer and JJ couldn't actually see me down the phone. 

"Yeah, commonly known as Librium. It's usually prescribed as a short-term treatment of anxiety. How high were the doses they'd been given?" I replied, starting to pace up and down the room.

"Around 100mg each. A high dose considering the size of the girls, it would definitely be enough to make them drowsy."

"For sure, a normal dose is about 30mg a day but can up to 60-100mg when necessary. So, that would be more than enough to knock someone of their size out. It's also one of the most common ones for IM injections and IV use." I stopped pacing as I raked through my thoughts.

"So, the unsub could definitely be a woman then. If she's drugging them to the point where they're knocked out that means they would be too weak to fight back and she would be able to beat them and kill them," Morgan explained.

"Yeah, it looks that way," Spencer said. 

"Thanks, Spencer. Let me know if you find anything else," I replied before hanging up.

"So, the unsub is somehow luring these girls away in broad daylight, drugging them and then holding them for two days while beating them before slitting their throats and dumping their bodies down random alley ways." Derek said out loud to no one in particular as I started pacing the room again. 

"The first three victims all lived in the same dorm at the same local community college, and then the other two lived in flats close to the college, so it's most likely that this unsub studies at this college too? I mean the bodies weren't dumped that far, all within a 5-mile radius of the college. And, they've got to have some kind of medical background to be able to calculate how much Librium to give the victims without overdosing them completely." I blurted out, tucking a piece of stray hair behind my ear. "Call Garcia for me a minute." 

"Are you sure it's a woman?" The detective asked, "I mean it all seems too complicated and too thought out not to be a man doing this?"

I opened my mouth to tell him in a not so polite way to keep his mouth shut unless it was something actually helpful to the case, but Garcia's voice interrupted me. 

"Penelope Garcia, how may I save your ass today?" She said through the phone.

"Keep it clean baby girl, you're on speaker," Derek joked, putting his phone in the middle of the table. 

"With you my love, it's always dirty," she replied. There was an awkward pause as she realised what she'd said, I couldn't help but smile at the uncomfortable look on Detective Howell's face. I already loved that girl. "How can I help?"

"Garcia, do you know if there are any nursing, or pharmacology or medical type courses at the community college?" I asked, Rossi nodding along as he realised where I was going.

"Erm, yes there is! They have a nursing department," she explained.

"Do you think you could send me a list of females between the ages of 18 and 25 on that course and send it to me please?"

"Of course, I'm sending it to your tablet now, call me back if you need anything else!" She said before hanging up.

"It's a long list," Derek stated and I shot him a look. No shit. At that moment, Hotch and Prentiss walked through the doors to join us.

"We spoke to the first victim, Shelly Rhodes', roommate who said that Shelly started receiving handwritten notes about three weeks ago. These notes are definitely threatening, her roommate said they started just after she took a boy home from a bar, who turned out to already have a girlfriend."

"Finding out your boyfriends cheated on you could definitely be a trigger. What was the boy called?" I asked

"Jake Stone." I picked up my phone and put it on speaker again. 

"Garcia, I need you to find everything you can on a Jake Stone for me please."

"Not a problem. He's 22 years old, was born and raised right here, goes to the same community college and studies engineering," she offered up.

"What about his social media? Any girls that he posts pictures of regularly?" Rossi asked.

"Erm yes! He had a girlfriend called Georgia Newton, but they recently broke up after he cheated on her. She sent him some rather threatening text messages about it. Oh my god, she goes to the same college and guess what she studies?"

"Nursing," I replied, spotting her name on my list. "Is she on any medications, do you know?"

"Yes, she recently started on some anti-anxiety medication since her mother was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer last month."

"Well, there's her first trigger, the stress of that and finding out your boyfriend was cheating on you would be more than enough to send someone spiralling," Morgan noted.

"Is it chlordiazepoxide hydrochloride by any chance?" Rossi asked, lounging back in his chair. 

"Yes, 10mg of Librium three times daily, via IM injection. Sending you her address now." She hung up the phone.

We all pulled on our bullet proof vests and headed out to our cars, ready to track the unsub down and arrest her. I wasn't even slightly nervous, I could just feel the adrenaline cursing through my veins, it felt good to finally feel like I was actually stopping one of the bad guys. _This_ was why I chose this job.


	3. Chapter 3

After making sure my bulletproof vest was on tight enough, I pulled out my gun ready, as I watched Morgan knock on the door. 

"Georgia Newton, it's the FBI, open up!" He shouted. There was no answer, and when she didn't reply again after his second shout, Morgan decided to take it upon himself to kick the door down and run in, the rest of us following closely behind. 

I turned left, pushing a door open, my gun still held high. I willed my breathing to steady as I turned slightly, scanning the room, only to be met with a hard object slamming into the side of my head. Dodging the second blow, I managed to fire a shot at the unsub who had attacked me, hitting her shoulder. She fell to the floor with a loud cry.

Ignoring the blinding pain in my head, I climbed on to her body, applying pressure to where I had shot her to stop the bleeding, whilst also holding her down so that she couldn't try and run away or hit me again.

"We need medics in here," I vaguely heard Morgan say as he came in the room. "Hey, Parker, you okay? Parker?" My head was hurting too much to focus on what he was saying. "Maddie move, let me take over." 

I just nodded, pressing a hand to the side of my head. My fingers were sticky with blood, and I winced as the dull throb turned into a sharper pain. Slowly, I managed to stand up, placing my gun back in my holster and headed back outside. 

~

"Jesus Christ, I am _fine_. It's stopped bleeding now and it doesn't even hurt anymore," I insisted, trying to avoid the paramedics that were now fussing over me. 

"Maddie, you were hit across the head with a baseball bat," JJ chuckled, fussing over me just as much. "Let them sort you out."

"I don't even need stitches, it's not that deep! Look, I know the signs of a concussion and what to look out for, I'll let you know if I start forgetting things or feeling sick," I told her, folding my arms across my chest. The pain in my head really was gone, just a mild twinge when I moved my eyebrows too much. I couldn't stand the way they were fussing over me. 

"Parker, you okay?" Hotch asked, walking over with the rest of the team following him. 

"Yes, I'm fine," I mumbled. "I'm not going to the hospital; I don't need to."

"That's fine," he said. "I just wanted to tell you what a good job you did today, I'm glad to have you working on our team."

"Oh, thank you, sir." I could feel my cheeks heating again with everyone looking at me. 

I stood up as the paramedics carried out the unsub from her home on a stretcher, now handcuffed to one of the two police officers who followed them out. Detective Howell spotted the group of us and headed towards us. I rolled my eyes; Derek placed a comforting hand on my shoulder to warn me to behave. 

"I just wanted to thank you all for helping with this case, we couldn't have done it without you." He shook Hotch's hand and I folded my arms across my chest. "Especially you, Agent Parker, I heard you took her down, you're clearly very good at what you do."

"It's _Doctor_ Parker, asshole." I glared at him.

"Maddie..." Derek warned quietly. 

"I think we got off on the wrong foot," Howell tried to explain, "I wasn't trying to be rude, if anything it was a compliment. You just don't look much like a doctor," he sighed. I stalked over to him, looking him up and down in the same way he had done to me before, my fists clenching at my sides.

"You are a vile, insecure man," I spat. "You feel threatened by me because a woman and I'm smarter than you? Get your head out of your arse, that closed mind of yours is going to end your career if you're not careful. I just hope to god I'm there to see it when it happens." I turned on my heels as I stormed off towards the cars, the rest of the team following me. I'd wanted to say worse but, losing my temper around the team on my first day didn't seem like the smartest idea. 

~

I didn't remember falling asleep but when I woke up, I was lied across two seats of the jet with a soft blanket draped across my body. 

"You're awake," Spencer noted from where he was sat across from me. I just nodded, sitting up properly.

"How are you feeling? You passed out in the back of the car and have been asleep ever since," Hotch said, staring at me intensely.

"Spencer has been checking your pulse every 10 minutes to make sure you were still alive," Emily added, laughing as he glared at her. 

"I'm okay, just a bit of a headache," I replied, gulping down the bottle of water that was shoved in my face, along with two paracetamols for the ache that had returned to my head. 

"We were just talking about going for dinner and drinks at Rossi's tonight, you're coming too," Emily insisted, coming to sit next to me. 

"Sounds good, I could definitely use a drink," I sighed, wrapping the blanket around myself. I turned to Hotch. "Look, I'm sorry for the way I spoke to that detective, I know it was unprofessional, but he was awful. Men like him were the reason I left my last job and I told myself I wasn't going to let it happen again this time."

"Don't worry, yes it was unprofessional but so was he, Rossi told me what was said, and I think you were justified." He waved a hand in dismissal at my words. "Just try not to make a habit of it otherwise no one will be willing to invite us back to work with them." I just nodded, smiling slightly at him.

I spent the rest of the flight playing chess with Spencer, laughing and joking with Emily and JJ. It was nice, I felt at home with this team. 

~

"Thank you," I said to the uber driver as I arrived outside the address Garcia had texted me. I was wearing black jeans, a v neck satin cami top and my usual Dr Martens boots. I'd worn gold jewellery and I'd tied up the top half of my hair, leaving out shorter pieces of hair to frame my face. It was the first time in months that I'd had a reason to get dressed up, I could barely contain my excitement.

Spencer climbed out of the car that pulled up next to me. It was a weird sight to see him driving. 

"Hello, _Dr_ Parker," he grinned at me, mocking my little outburst from before. A funny look passed over his face as he looked at me, probably at the sight of my black eye that was swollen shut after being hit in the head earlier.

"Dr Reid," I replied, rolling my eyes at him, "nice car." 

"Thank you," he grinned, "you didn't drive?"

"I'm planning on drinking way too much to be able to drive myself home, plus I don't have a car yet. Or an American driver’s license," I sighed, I couldn't help but notice how good Spencer looked in his suit. He wasn't wearing a tie, just a pair of jeans, a white shirt with the top three buttons undone and a suit jacket. I smiled as I noticed he was wearing his converse still, and odd socks. " _This_ is Rossi's house?" I asked in awe.

"It's one of them," he chuckled, I just gaped at him, following him down the huge driveway and through the double doors. 

"Oh my gosh, Maddie you look unreal!" Garcia squealed, pulling me in for a hug. 

"Look at yourself!" I replied giddily, squeezing her tightly. "I love your shoes!" I linked my arm with hers, giggling as she led me to the kitchen, pouring us both a huge glass of wine. 

"How do you still look absolutely gorgeous even with a black eye," Emily muttered, hugging me with her free arm. 

"I don't know that gorgeous is the right word, I look I've just done 6 rounds with Mike Tyson and lost. _Badly_." 

"How are you feeling?" JJ asked, taking a large sip from her own glass.

"Much better now I've had a drink," I smiled, downing the rest of my glass and filling it up again. 

"Food's ready," Rossi shouted from another room. 

I followed the girls into the kitchen, where the men were gathered and sat myself down at the table next to Spencer. 

"Oh my god, I'm in David Rossi's house!" I whispered to him, sending us both into a fit of giggles. 

"I hope you brought your book for him to sign," he replied, causing us to both laugh even harder. 

I finished my second glass of wine and Garcia topped off my glass again before I'd even had chance to realise it was empty. I could feel the alcohol warming my body as I took another mouthful, helping me forget the stress of the last few days.

"A toast," Rossi announced, tapping the side of his glass with a knife. "To the newest member of our team, Dr Madeline Parker, another kid genius to put all of us oldies to shame. Welcome to the family, kiddo!" He grinned at me. 

"To Maddie!" Everyone cheered, clinking their glasses together in the air. Glancing sideways, I saw Spencer smiling at me brightly. 

By the time we'd all finished our meals and moved the conversation to the living room, we'd all emptied another three bottles of wine. Even Hotch was drunk which everyone seemed to think was the most hilarious thing ever. My head was buzzing, and my cheeks were flushed but I was too happy to care. 

"Do you know any card games?" I drawled out to Spencer, my tongue starting to feel heavy in my mouth. 

"I grew up in Vegas," he said cockily, "of course I do. How about a game of poker?"

I grinned at him, nodding eagerly. 

"When I worked as a nurse, I used to play this with some of my patients on slow shifts," I said quietly. JJ, Morgan, Emily and Garcia joined us as Spencer began setting the game up.

"You were a nurse?" Spencer asked, raising his eyebrows at me.

"For almost four years while I was at uni," I explained, "to help pay for it all." 

"So that's how you knew so much about the medications?" Derek asked and I nodded. "How old _are_ you?"

"25," I replied, grinning at them all. 

" _Christ_ ," he mumbled, running a hand over his face.

"Why couldn't I find any of that when I searched for you?" Garcia asked, clearly the alcohol had wiped away whatever small boundaries she usually had. 

"My brother Kit is a tech genius, although nowhere near as good as you. He wanted to make sure I was safe when I started working at Scotland Yard so, he hid as much public information he could about me and my family," I explained. 

"How old is _he_ and will he be coming to America to visit any time soon?" Garcia asked with bright wide eyes.

"He's 24, don't even think about it. You're way too good for him," I laughed as she pouted at me, rolling her eyes. "What else did you find out about me?"

"Nothing about you or your family, just where you lived, your girlfriend..." she sang, wiggling her eyebrows at me.

" _Ex-_ girlfriend," I sighed, not really sure how they would all react to that information. 

"Of course, you're gay, Parker," Derek mumbled, shaking his head. 

"I'm Bi," I corrected, locking eyes with Emily who was smirking at me. 

"Is Kit your only sibling?" Spencer asked me, looking at me intensely.

"No, I have another brother too, he's only 16 though. Enough questions now, I thought we were playing poker!" I wined, not liking the damper this conversation was putting on my mood. 

"Honestly, it's late and I'm getting tired, I think I'm going to head home," JJ said, stifling a yawn. 

"Me too, I've had one too many bottles of wine I think," Emily added, following JJ to say her goodbyes to everyone. Garcia and Morgan both hugged me and Spencer goodbye as well, before heading out together with linked arms.

"Come on, I'll give you a ride home Maddie." Spencer held out a hand to me, which I begrudgingly took after rolling my eyes at him. 

"Thank you for tonight, Rossi, I had a lovely time. Your house is amazing and so is your food and so is your wine!" I giggled, waving over my shoulder as Spencer dragged me out of the house towards his car. 

The drive back home was quiet, but not in an uncomfortable way. There was soft classical music playing from the speakers which Spencer was humming along to quietly. 

"How do you know where we're going, you didn't even put my address in the sat nav?" I mumbled; the vibrations of the car combined with the amount of alcohol in my system seemed to be lulling me to sleep. 

"I have an eidetic memory, I pretty much know my way everywhere," he replied matter of factly. "Plus, your apartment isn't far from mine, so I know the area well."

"You have an eidetic memory? That's so cool." He nodded at me, as if it wasn't very cool at all.

"Are you close with your brothers? 9 years is a big age gap."

"Yeah, I am surprisingly. Kit's the older of the two, we were like twins growing up, completely inseparable even though we have absolutely nothing in common. Cody's the youngest, we are literally the same people, but I went to uni when he turned 6 so I didn't get to spend that much time with him. What about you, do you have any siblings?" I rambled on, the alcohol still doing most of the talking.

"No, I'm an only child," he sighed. I struggled to keep my eyelids open but the way he spoke seemed as though this wasn't a conversation; he was particularly comfortable with. 

I watched him pull up outside my apartment, it took all of my effort to drag myself up out of his car. 

"Good night, Dr Reid. Thank you for the lift, you still owe me a game of poker though!" I mumbled, waving at him as I walked into my apartment. 

"Good night, Dr Parker!" He shouted back, waving at me with a bright smile.


	4. Chapter 4

"Spencer," I said in a sing song voice, pushing myself over to his desk, "I'm bored." I pouted at him, resting my elbows on his desk, my hands holding the weight of my head. It had been a week since the meal at Rossi's, my face was almost completely healed, I just had some slight bruising left around my eye. Spencer had been giving me lifts to and from work ever since, I still hadn't managed to sort out my car situation, but he didn't seem to mind. I kinda liked having a reason to spend even more time with him.

"You have work to do," he replied pointing to my desk without even looking up at me. 

"I've finished it," I whined. That made him look up.

"Maddie, I can read 20,000 words per minute and I'm just over halfway through mine, there is no way you are finished." He scrunched his nose up, a little twitch I'd noticed he does a lot when he's stressed or nervous. 

"Show off," I muttered, sticking my tongue out at him. "But yes I am. I guess it's just because I'm smarter than you and better at this job than you." 

"I highly doubt that. Grow up and do your work," he ordered me. I would've thought he was mad at me if I couldn't see that small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. He was wearing a really cute cardigan over his shirt and tie today, his usual odd socks peeking out the top of his converse.

"Geez, someone's in a bad mood." I folded my arms across my chest and turned back to my own desk. My phone buzzed and I pulled it out to see I had two more texts from my mum. I'd been ignoring her since I got to America, I couldn't deal with her constant pestering and fussing. Rolling my eyes, I returned my phone to my pocket and started on the paperwork that I'd lied about being finished.

The phone on my desk rang, causing me to jump. I frowned at it; I didn't even realise I had a phone on my desk. 

"I think you're supposed to answer your phone when it rings," Spencer mocked, clearly irritated that I wasn't answering it. I glared at him, sticking my middle finger up in his direction. 

"Hello?" I answered, picking up the receiver. 

"Are you kidding me? This is what it takes for me to be able to get into contact with my daughter? I have to ring your _work_ phone!" My mums voice screamed down. I winced at her volume, letting out an audible groan. 

"How the hell did you get this number? I didn't even know this phone existed until 2 seconds ago!" I exasperated, letting out an audible groan.

"Your brother received a lovely call from one of your colleagues the other day and she passed your number on," she explained, clearly completely unbothered that she was interrupting me at work. "So, how are you? How's America? How's your work? Are the people being nice to you, I do hope you're not showing off or causing any trouble Maddie, I know what you're like."

"Mum, I'm at work right now so I can't really talk. I'll ring you later, okay?" I said through gritted teeth, my patience was already wearing thin.

"You better Maddie, or I will keep ringing this phone. I've have had two texts from you since you got there, that is not enough to know you're okay. We all worry about you; Kit's an emotional wreck and I know Cody misses you lots! When are you coming home to visit?" 

"Yeah, I bet Kit is an absolute wreck about me leaving, we all know how great he is at showing his emotions, right?" I ran a hand over my face. 

"Sarcasm, young lady, I've warned you about that! We just miss you!"

"Alright, mum, I get it, I'm sorry! I miss you too, talk to you later." I didn't give her chance to reply before slamming the receiver back down and hanging up on her. 

I sighed, leaning back in my chair as I ran, I hand over my face. I could feel Spencer's eyes staring into the side of my head, his eyebrows raised expectantly. When I opened my eyes, I saw Garcia heading towards the kitchen area to make herself a drink, I pushed myself up of my chair and stormed over to her, my boots slamming hard against the floor. 

"Penelope Garcia, you have some explaining to do!" I half shouted as I neared her. 

"Oh no," she whispered, clinging onto her mug. 

"You rang my _brother_?" I exclaimed, "what the hell?"

"I wanted to talk to him about the system he used to wipe all of your data so I could learn from him and then he asked how you were and mentioned that your mom had been trying to get in touch with you, so I passed on your number! I'm sorry, I didn't realise it would be such a problem," she blurted out. "By the way, your brother is incredible and he's _so_ smart, are you like a family of weird geniuses?"

"Really, Garcia?" I sighed, pinching the bridge between my nose as a headache started forming.

"I'm sorry," she said again, hugging me. "Please, forgive me."

"It's fine. I'm going to need a new number though; I can't be dealing with her ringing me constantly while I'm at work."

"Maybe, if you answered your phone for once, she wouldn't have to ring you at work!" 

"Watch it, I'm still not very happy with you." I gave her a stern look.

"Oh hush, you love me. You need to call your mother more," she giggled, hugging me again before walking off back to her office. 

I dragged myself back to my desk, flopping down in my chair as I pulled out the chord to my desk phone, disconnecting it.

"Now who's in a bad mood," Spencer quipped, holding back his laughter.

"Kiss my ass," I replied, giving him a vulgar gesture. I heard him laughing again, clearly amused by my bad mood. "She called my _brother_!"

"How dare she!" He feigned shock, sarcasm lacing his words. "You have such a bad temper," he clicked his tongue at me.

"Piss off," I mumbled, throwing a crumpled ball of paper at him.

"10 minutes and then we can go," he muttered, "I'm almost finished."

~

"Hi, mum," I said down the phone as Spencer and I walked to his car. 

"Maddie! All the boys are here too, can you FaceTime us?"

"Sure." I gave Spencer an apologetic smile before turning my camera on, holding the phone up to my face. 

"Hi Maddie," they all said in chorus. 

"Kit, what's this I've heard about you speaking to Garcia? She seems to think you're a genius, I have no idea why she would possibly think that."

"She's not wrong, I _am_ smarter than you," he snorted.

"Your lack of Ph.D. say's otherwise, prick."

"Language, Madeline!" My mum muttered but I could hear my dad laughing in the background.

"I don't need a fancy title to prove how smart I am, it's obvious to everyone without it," Kit laughed. 

"Whose car is that you're getting into?" My mum asked. 

"My friend Spencer's, he's giving me a lift home from work. Where's Cody, I wanna see him?"

"He doesn't want to talk coz he's in trouble. He got suspended for getting into another fight at school," Kit said cockily. 

"Pipe down Kit, you are 24 years old and still live with your parent's, you can't say _anything._ "

"I miss you too, Mads" he laughed before walking away from the phone. 

"Cody got this behaviour from you, Madeline. I'm not impressed at all!" My mum added, frowning. I hated how much she still treat me like a child, I thought moving to America would stop her but clearly, I thought wrong.

"Mum, he was 6 when I left home, he didn't get it from me, that's not how behaviour works. I'm sure he will have had a good reason for whatever he did, I'll try speaking to him when he's stopped sulking. I gotta go, I'll talk to you again at the weekend, okay?"

"Okay sweetie, stay safe. We love you and miss you lots! Bye!" 

"Bye," I said quickly, hanging up the phone. "I'm sorry about that, they're a bit er- full on," I said to Spencer. That was the polite way of putting it.

"They all seem lovely," he said quietly. 

"What are you doing tonight? Do you wanna go get some food or something, I don't feel like going home yet," I asked, the familiar anxiety creeping into my body that usually came with speaking to my family.

"Yeah, of course. I don't have any plans." I smiled at him. "What?" he asked. 

"Nothing, I'm just really glad we're friends," I shrugged. A small smile played on his lips again. 

~

"So, what was it like growing up in Vegas?" I asked Spencer, through a mouthful of pasta. He'd taken us to one of his favourite restaurants, saying it was the best Italian place in the area. I'd take his word for it, I hadn't been here long enough to know whether he was right or not.

He shrugged at me with a frown, finishing his own mouthful of food before taking a sip from his drink. "My mom has schizophrenia and my dad left us when I was 10 because he couldn't deal with her so, I didn't really have much of a normal childhood. I graduated high school when I was 12 and had my first degree by the time, I was 16. I didn't really like school, the kids there were mean." I blinked in surprise, he said it so simply.

"How's your mum now? Do you get to see her much?" I asked, still surprised.

"She's okay, she's been in an institution for the last 12 years. There are good days and bad days. I don't see her as much as I would like but we write to each other a lot which is nice." He smiled at the memories as he spoke, a sadness I'd not seen before in his eyes. "My mom used to be a lecturer of 15th century literature; her favourite author is Margery Kemp. She could talk about her for hours, I used to love it when she would read to me."

"She sounds amazing," I grinned at him, taking another mouthful of food.

"She is," he spoke softly. "Why did your brother really hide all that information about you?"

"Because your nosy boy," I rolled my eyes, "I didn't have the greatest track record growing up, I got myself suspended from school more times than I can remember. My mother thought it would be best if my record was clean, so I had a better chance at getting a good job, she saw it as a waste of potential if that were to stop me."

"Is that what she meant when she said your brother gets his fighting off you?" He raised an eyebrow at me. 

"Yup, I was a little shit when I was younger," I nodded. "Don't look at me like that Spence, I didn't go out looking for fights, I just stood up for people when they couldn't do it themselves and sometimes it took a couple of punches to get the message across. I wound up a lot of teachers too, they didn't like me because I called them out when they were wrong, which almost always," I shrugged, "the therapists at school think it was because I was 'too smart’, and I acted out of boredom. I'm pretty sure they only skipped me two years because they were all sick of me being there." 

"And now your brother is doing the same?"

"Yeah, it's a bit different with him though. Cody was like two months premature so we proper babied him and spoilt him because the doctors told us he probably wouldn't make it home from the hospital. Obviously, they were wrong but, mum still babies him so much so he was picked on loads at school coz he was a wet wipe and would come home crying every night. So, I told him that the next time someone said something mean to him, punch them in the face and they'll think twice before they open their mouths again." 

"What brilliant, sisterly advice you give," Spencer said with a smirk.

"I know right? It worked though; he just doesn't know when to stop now. He's not quite as smart as Kit and me," I grinned at Spencer, finishing my plate of food. 

"I can't decide whether you're the world’s greatest sister or the world’s worst." 

"Definitely the greatest," I giggled. 

"Who are you closer to, your mom or dad?" He asked, calling a waitress over to pay the bill. I didn't want this night to end, I just wanted to keep talking to Spencer. 

"Oh, my dad for sure, we were so close growing up. Kit was a right mummy's boy, but I clung to my dad, he taught me almost everything I know. He's super smart like me," I smirked, taking a deep breath as Spencer looked at me with those pitiful eyes. "I miss him a lot. I love my mum but she's not the nicest of people and I think she knocked the spirit out of my dad over the years." I started chewing on the inside of my cheek, thinking of a way to change the conversation. "What's your middle name?"

"Walter, what's yours?" He scrunched his nose slightly, frowning at me.

"Louise."

"Madeline Louise Parker," he murmured, "sorry, _Doctor_ Madeline Louise Parker."

I cocked my head at him, giving him a sarcastic smile as I held up my two middle fingers which sent him into a fit of laughter. The waitress came over with the bill, which he insisted on paying for himself, despite my many protests. 'You can pay next time," was all he had said to me. As we were walking back to his car, I could feel Spencer's eyes on me, studying me intensely. 

"Are you really trying to profile me right now, Spence?" I sighed, glaring at him sideways. 

"Sorry, it's hard to turn it off sometimes," he replied, looking at me innocently. 

I stared at him in warning, "Let's make a deal I won't profile you, if you won't profile me?" I stuck a handout to him, knowing that he probably wouldn't shake it considering he was a massive germaphobe.

"Deal," he shook my hand firmly. 


	5. Chapter 5

I shoved a piece of paper in Spencer’s face, grinning at him. 

"What's this?" He asked, taking it from me.

"Read it."

"You got your licence? Congratulations Maddie!" He wrapped his arms around me, picking me up in the air. I squealed as he spans me around, I loved how excited he was for me, even though it was a tiny accomplishment considering I'd already been driving in England for almost 10 years. 

"Thank you," I smiled, smoothing out my top as he put me down. "This means you get to come car shopping with me now!"

"Lucky me," he muttered, and I stuck my tongue out at him. "You are such a child."

"Rude, what are you doing this weekend?" I asked, sitting on the edge of his desk, swinging my legs.

"Taking you car shopping apparently," he sulked but I could see him holding back his smile and I knew he was actually excited about spending time with me.

"Hey, you two," JJ smiled, walking over to us with Emily and Garcia following her. 

"Hey," I replied, taking a sip out of the coffee Spencer handed to me. 

"Still on for girls’ night this Saturday?" Garcia asked, she'd added bright blue streaks to her hair and her lips were painted with a matching colour. 

"Hell yes!" I squealed, "I have this gorgeous new dress to wear, I can't wait!" 

"Taxi is picking us up at 7 so, make sure you're ready, I want to get so drunk I can't even walk home and I'm not waiting for you again!" Emily said, walking over to her desk. 

~

"I've been doing some research for you," Spencer explained as I climbed into his car, handing me a stack of papers. "These are all cars I've found that are in your price range and I think would be ideal for you based on engine size, running costs and interior features. If you don't like any of these ones though, I know where all the dealerships in this area are so we can just go and have a look around."

I flipped through the papers he had handed me; each page had a picture of the car and all the important information bullet pointed underneath it. I blinked slowly; I couldn't believe he'd done all this for me.

"Maddie? You okay?" His voice pulled me away from my thoughts and I turned to look at him. 

"Thank you," I said quietly, "you didn't have to do all this."

"I know but, I wanted to. I thought it might make things a bit easier for us, I like to be prepared." He shrugged, brushing it off like it was nothing. 

"I like this one." I held up a sheet with a picture of a grey Mini on it.

"We'll start with that one then," he replied, smiling at me. 

It was a quick, 10-minute drive to the dealership. Spencer even let me put the radio on which I sang along to quietly, I even caught him humming along a few times. 

"Oh my god, it's perfect!" I squealed, running my hand gently across the roof of the car. "I'm gonna buy it." 

"Maddie, we have been here less 2 minutes, you haven't even looked inside the car yet."

I just giggled at him, sticking my tongue out as I opened the door and climbed into the driver’s seat. 

"There, I've looked inside, and I still like it," I sighed. "It's even got a built in sat nav!"

"And it has heated front seats, Bluetooth, air conditioning and tinted back windows." He rambled on, listing all the tech specs from the listing he'd printed off for me.

"See, it's perfect! I'm buying it!" I raised my hands in exasperation. 

"Are you sure? We can go look at some of the other places too if you're not 100% certain, I don't mind." 

I got the impression that Spencer didn't want the day to be over this quickly, he was adamant that I needed to at least look at one other car before making my decision and he kept looking at me with those big bright eyes of his, I couldn't say no to him. So, I let him drive me around all day, listening to him explain the details and facts about the cars I pointed out. We still ended up back at the first dealership, buying the Mini I liked. 

"Thank you so much, I'm so excited!" I giggled, signing the papers before handing over my card to Dan, the salesman who had sold me the car.

"Okay, so I'll give you a call in the next few days when it's ready for you to pick up," Dan explained, "will your boyfriend be able to drive you here to get it?"

"Who? Spencer?" I turned and looked at him stood at the other desk, re-reading all the paperwork. "Oh no, he's not boyfriend but he should be able to bring me," I mumbled. 

"So, you don't have a boyfriend?" 

"No..." It took all my strength not to turn my nose up at him. He wasn't particularly ugly; in fact, he was actually really good looking, but I just wasn't interested.

"Maybe you would like to go out for a drink with me sometime then?" He winked at me, as if this wasn't already awkward enough. 

"Oh, I don't think so." I didn't know how to reply without being rude, I had to see him again when I came to pick up my car and I didn't want it to be awkward. 

"Here's my number, give me a call if you if you change your mind." He was grinning at me as he handed me his card. I tried to smile back politely but I'm pretty sure it came across as more of a weird cringe. He really needed to learn how to take a hint.

I was thoroughly grateful when Spencer re-joined us and led me back outside. I'd had enough of the stares I was getting from.

" _Shit_ ," I muttered, noticing the time in Spencer's car. _6:30pm_. "I forgot I was getting picked up at 7 to meet the girls."

"You've got half an hour, we'll be home in 10 minutes so, that still gives you plenty of time to be ready," Spencer frowned at me, starting his car.

"Aw Spence, that's so cute. You think I can get ready in 20 minutes?" I giggled, "No chance, I'll just text them saying I'm running late and will get my own taxi there."

"I'll drive you," Spencer offered.

"Oh no, don't be daft, you've driven me around more than enough today!"

"Honestly, it's fine. I'd rather drive you myself than worrying about you getting in a taxi on your own," he smiled softly at me. 

"Are you sure?" I felt bad having to constantly rely on him.

"Yes, Maddie, I'm sure."

"Thank you, Spence, I owe you big time!" I half hugged his free arm and he chuckled as he tried to wriggle free. 

"Why did you say no to drinks with that car salesman? He was checking you out the whole time we were there, he's definitely into you."

"He's not really my type," I mumbled, staring out the window. Spencer just furrowed his brows at me in question. "I'd get bored so quickly, I like people who can actually hold a conversation about something other than cars or football." I rolled my eyes.

Spencer just laughed, shaking his head at me. He pulled up outside my apartment and we both climbed out of his car. He followed me up the stairs as I unlocked my door, shutting it behind us both. I threw my keys onto side table, kicking off my boots at the same time.

"I'll be as quick as I can, make yourself at home. If you get bored there's TV and books pretty much everywhere and you can help yourself to food and drink from the kitchen too!" 

"Thanks," he replied, perching on the edge of my sofa.

I quickly text the girls to tell them that I was going to be late and would meet them at the bar before hopping in the shower. It was the quickest shower of my life, I felt bad that I had Spencer waiting for me, so I rushed to get ready. I pulled my new black dress on, admiring the way it clung to my body. I looked good. Deciding to leave my hair to dry into its natural curls instead of straightening it, I gave myself more time to focus on applying my make up. When I came out of my room it was almost 7:30 and Spencer was sat on my sofa, skim reading a book. His head snapped up when he heard me walk back into the room, placing the book down beside him. 

"Do I look okay?" I asked him, pulling down the hem of my dress so my arse wasn't completely on show.

"You look more than okay Maddie, you look... absolutely stunning." He stood up as he spoke, his fingers laced together as he twitched his thumbs nervously, his eyes raking over my body.

"Thank you," I replied quietly. "I'll put my boots on in the car, you ready?" He nodded at me, heading for the door as I grabbed my bag off the side. 

"What were you reading?" I asked, locking the door behind us. 

"The Narrative of John Smith, it's one of my favourites."

"Of course it is Spencer, what a cliché. It's good but not the best of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's works," I replied, getting into his car. He just rolled his eyes at me before telling me how wrong I was. 

~

"I am so _so_ sorry I'm late!" I shouted over the music as I joined the three girls at the bar. "I was car shopping with Spencer, and I lost track of time." The three of them exchanged a look. "What?"

"You and Spencer seem to be spending an awful lot of time together," Emily noted, raising her eyebrows.

"Yeah, he's my _friend_." I couldn't help but roll my eyes at them.

"Just a friend?" JJ giggled, "I think you like him, and he likes you." Clearly, I'd missed more than one drink as the three of them burst into a fit of giggles like a group of schoolgirls. 

"I don't know what you're talking about and neither do you, apparently I have a lot of drinks to catch up on," I said, raising my eyebrows. 

"Come on, we're just messing with you. Let's do some shots and you're buying because you were late, Parker!" Garcia shouted. 

5 tequila shots and three glasses of wine later I was finally on the same drunk level as the rest of the girls. I was dancing with Garcia in the middle of the bar, screaming the lyrics dramatically when Garcia caught the attention of a man, who she went back to the bar with to get another drink. I re-joined JJ and Emily at our table, gulping down my wine. 

"Men are pigs," I said to them both, noticing the vile looks I was getting from some of them as they walked past. They both nodded in agreement. "You know, the man who sold me my car today asked me out and still gave me his number even after I said no!" 

"Was he cute?" JJ asked, giggling into her drink. 

"He was," I sighed, " _But_ he was about as interesting as a brick wall."

"Oh, who cares! You don't have to speak to him, just get what you want from him and then you can leave!" Emily shrugged and I grinned at her. She was right. "Also, I think Penelope has a thing for you brother," she added, "this is the first night she hasn't spoken about him." They both laughed as I rolled my eyes.

"She would eat him alive," I replied, smiling as I watched her head back over to us. 

"Do you miss your family?" JJ asked, taking a sip from her beer. 

"A little bit. I moved away for uni when I was 16 and I haven't lived at home for over 10 years so, I'm kind of used to it now. It's just harder this time because I know it's a bit more difficult than a 3 hour drive to go see them."

"Oh, I could just listen to you speak for hours and hours, your accent is like music to my ears," Garcia exclaimed, joining the table again with a fresh drink. "Almost as nice as listening to Kit talk," she snorted, laughing hysterically at what she had said. 

"Oh god, here we go!" I groaned, "he's my baby brother, please don't."

"Oh, the things I would do to have that boy whispering coding sequences in my ear," she sighed, lost in thought.

They all laughed at me as I buried my face in my hands. I hoped I never had to see Garcia and my brother go head-to-head, it would be a disaster.


	6. Chapter 6

"Same clothes as yesterday, you're wearing your glasses and you look like you haven't slept, doesn't take a profiler to figure out what you got up to last night!" Emily giggled as I hurried into the conference room. 

"Shut up," I hissed, "I went out for drinks and I forgot my contact solution, we weren't supposed to be coming in today so I didn't think it would matter!"

"'Bout time you got some, princess, good for you!" Derek was smirking at, clearly finding my embarrassment amusing.

"Was it Dan?" Garcia squealed, joining in the conversation. I just glared at them both. "Oh my god, it _was_! Was he good?"

"Dan who sold you your car?" Spencer asked, with his eyebrows raised. We'd picked up my car last week and in a moment of weakness I'd agreed to drinks when he asked me again. 

"Yes, Dan who sold me my car," I shot him a look. "And he was alright actually, despite his lack of personality."

"I thought you said he was too boring to talk too?" Spencer asked again, his brows furrowed. The girls all looked between one another. 

"I don't think they were doing much talking for it to matter, Spence," JJ added, the girls all giggling along with her.

"Are you going to see him again?" Emily asked.

"No." I folded my arms across my chest, not enjoying this conversation at all. 

At that minute, Hotch and Rossi walked into the conference room ending the conversation.

"Oh, thank god," I muttered under my breath. 

"Thank you for coming in today, I know you were supposed to be off today but it's a bad case. Multiple child abductions, they need our help." Hotch stated. "I'll brief you all on the jet."

~

It was a tough case; it always was when children were involved. We'd been awake for 48 straight hours until we'd found where they were. 13 children in total were found and two bodies, four of the children hadn't even been reported missing and had no families for us to return them too.

I was stood next to Spencer, watching the parents be reunited with their children. It broke my heart to watch, I pulled my FBI work coat around me for comfort. It felt good to know we had helped so many, but I couldn't stop thinking about all the parents that were still out there with their kids missing, wondering where they are. 

"Do you ever think about having kids, Spence?" I looked up at him, pushing my glasses back up my nose slightly. His face was hard and his hair all messy and dishevelled from the two days’ work. 

"I would love to have kids one day," he replied, smiling at me. "Do you?"

"I'm not sure, I've never really thought about it," I sighed. "I don't think I could give up my career to do it, I love work too much."

"I would, I'd give it all up." I tried not to think about what an amazing dad he would be.

JJ walked over to us, a solemn look on her face. I knew this must be hard for her, having Henry at home. I don't know how she does it. I squeezed her hand tightly and she smiled at me, squeezing my hand back. 

Everyone was quiet on the jet home, even Morgan wasn't his usual flirty self. I was curled up in one of the seats next to Spencer reading a book, I was so exhausted, but I couldn't seem to turn my brain off to sleep. 

"I can't stop thinking about those kids. I mean how many parents are still out there, looking for their children?" JJ sighed, sliding into the chair opposite me. 

"You know, over 424,066 children were reported missing last year and of those, 96% were found alive," I explained, offering a small smile. 

"But what about those who aren't even reported? We found 4 just today."

"It's estimated that there's only about 500 unreported missing children every year," Spencer offered up, "which is a significantly small amount considering there are over 73.7 million children currently living in the US."

"You can't worry about the what if's, it's out of our control. We saved _13_ children today, that's a big win. Focus on the positives," I smiled at her again. 

"Thank you." She reached her hand across the table to squeeze mine.

I took my glasses off and put them on the table in front of me and rested my head on Spencer's shoulder. My eyes finally feeling heavy as the exhaustion from the last few days hit me. I started to drift off and I felt someone place a soft blanket over my body, followed by Spencer resting his head on top of mine. All I could smell was his expensive cologne, the woodsy, sweet aroma felt so comforting to me that I was almost asleep before I knew it.

"It's nice to see them both finally switch their big brains off," I heard JJ say quietly. "It still amazes me how alike they both are, but so different too."

"I know," Emily agreed, "I'm glad Spencer's got someone he can talk to about all his genius stuff though, I think they're good for each other."

The movement of the jet landing woke me with a shock. I lifted my head off Spencer’s shoulder, smiling sheepishly at him as I rubbed my eyes. 

"'Morning sleepyhead, do you need a lift home?" Spencer asked, smiling down at me. 

"Please," I replied, stifling a yawn. 

We were silent on the ride home, both completely drained from the case, but I felt like Spencer was being slightly distant with me, almost awkward.

"Do you want to come in?" I asked him as we pulled up outside of my apartment.

He nodded, parking up his car. I kicked off my boots as I got through the door and headed straight for the kitchen, making two giant cups of tea before handing one to Spencer and plonking myself down on the sofa. 

"How's your mum doing?" I asked him, taking a sip. 

"She's doing good actually, thank you. The doctors said she's responding well to her treatment and is coping really well," he smiled at me. 

"That's good," I replied, he just nodded at me again. "Okay, Spence, spit it out. Why are you being so weird with me?"

"I'm not," he furrowed his brows at me, his nose scrunching.

"Liar, you only scrunch your nose like that when you're stressed or nervous!" He just stared at me. "Fine, don't talk to me then, you wanna watch a movie?"

"Yeah, that sounds good." I downed the rest of my tea while I put a random film on for us to watch before turning to look at him expectantly, my eyebrows raised. "Come here then," he grinned at me, holding his arms open. 

I lied across the sofa, resting my head on his knee as he placed one of his hands on my side. He was telling me some facts about one of the actors in the movie when I felt his thumb move across my back. It was so soft and subtle I almost missed until he did it again, this time he made a small circle, repeating the movement over and over again. He was barely touching me, but it was is distracting, I couldn't even focus on the film never mind what he was saying to me. I'd told myself it was habit, he always used his hands when he was talking, it didn't mean anything. 

"Maddie?" He asked quietly.

"Hmm?" Was all I managed to respond. 

"You're very quiet," he mumbled, his free hand tucking a piece of hair behind my ear before resting on my head. "If you're still tired, I can go, let you get some sleep?"

"I'm okay, just enjoying the movie." He chuckled softly as his fingers started playing with my hair. His other hand had moved down my side slightly his fingers playing with the hem of my t shirt before slipping underneath. I chewed on my lip to stop myself from gasping at the warmth of his touch, we were _friends_ , I couldn't let myself feel like this towards him. 

Apparently, I _was_ still tired because I managed to doze off again, I only woke when Spencer removed his hands, my skin feeling cold without his touch. He lifted me up and carried me to my bedroom, letting me down softly on my bed. 

"Not tired my arse," he smirked at me as my eyes fluttered open, I just stuck my tongue out, too tired to form a sentence to reply. "Sleep well," he said quietly before leaving me alone. 


	7. Chapter 7

When Spencer climbed into my car on the following Monday morning, the first thing I noticed was his hair was different. The second thing I noticed was how utterly gorgeous he looked. I couldn't help myself from staring at him.

"You cut your hair," I stated, still very obviously staring at him.

"What?" He looked up at me, brows furrowed. 

"You cut your hair," I said again. He cut his hair, and he somehow looked even better than he did before. 

"Well, _I_ didn't cut it, someone else cut if for me," he quipped, looking at me strangely. 

"It looks good, really good," I grinned at him, trying to play off the awkwardness.

"Thanks" he mumbled, buckling himself in. I turned my attention to the roads, grateful to have something other than him to focus on.

Working with Spencer sat next to me was near impossible, I couldn't keep my eyes off him. He looked _so_ good. I almost sighed in relief when he left for his lunch break, I had a full morning of paperwork to catch up on.

"Hey, princess, you've got a bit of drool on your chin there," Derek mocked, walking over to my desk. I snapped my mouth shut, not realising it was hanging open as I stuck my finger up at him. 

"I do not!" I hissed, my cheeks heating in embarrassment. "Oh, piss off Morgan!" 

Both of our phones rang, and I had never loved Garcia more than in that moment for pulling me away from that awkward conversation by texting us about a new case. I practically jumped out of my chair and ran up the stairs, eager to avoid any more interrogation from Morgan.

Spencer was already in the conference room when I got there, sat crossed legged on the side table, reading through a case file. I watched the way his fingers ran across the page, my mind drifted back to the other night and how good those hands felt touching me, I couldn't help but wonder what else he could do with those hands. Sliding myself onto the table next to him, I brought one of my knee's up to my chest, resting my chin on top of it. 

"What do you know about witch history and the Salem witch trials?" He asked me, not looking up from the file.

"Weirdly a lot," I frowned, going over everything I knew in my brain. "Witch hysteria was at its peak in Europe during the mid 1400s, I remember reading something that said between the years 1500 and 1660, up to 80,000 suspected witches were put to death after confessing from being tortured. The most common methods of execution were being burned at the stake or hanging."

"So, this is what two geniuses spend their spare time talking about, the history of witches," Rossi walked in, rolling his eyes. "Why can't either of you ever sit properly in a chair, like normal people?"

"Don't get mad because you're too old to even cross your legs now, Rossi," I replied, giggling at him. 

"Watch it, I'm not that old yet." He pointed his finger at me, but he was smiling. 

"What about the Salem Witch trials?" Spencer asked, finally putting the file down.

"The publication of "Malleus Maleficarum" in 1486 caused the witch mania to go viral in America, the Salem witch trials in 1692 were one of the best-known trials. It started when two young girls began suffering from fits, body contortions and uncontrolled screaming. And then as more young women began to exhibit symptoms and three women were accused of witchcraft: Sarah Good, Sarah Osborn and Tituba, who was an enslaved woman owned by one of the young girl’s father. Tituba confessed to being a witch and began accusing others of using black magic. On June 10, Bridget Bishop became the first accused witch to be put to death during the Salem Witch Trials when she was hanged at the Salem gallows. Around 150 people were accused of being witches and 18 were put to death, 6 of them being men."

"Interesting," he murmured, scrunching up his nose.

"I can't believe I actually know more than you about something!" I giggled, ruffling up his hair. 

"I actually did know most of that," he replied, giving my leg a squeeze, "I just wanted to see if you knew anything different."

"Yeah, yeah Spence, you can admit that I'm smarter than you at any point you know!" I winked at him as I hopped off the table and sat in my chair, Spencer following right behind me. 

The rest of the team walked in the room, Derek making a point by raising his eyebrows at how close Spencer and I were sat. 

"Where we flying to this time, baby girl?" Derek asked as Garcia walked in the room. 

"Windsor, Connecticut," She replied, clicking her remote. "Three women found burned alive at the stake."

"So, _that’s_ why you were asking me about the Salem witch trials," I murmured to Spencer. He just glanced at me sideways, pressing a finger to his lips to tell me to be quiet.

"Any ID's?" Hotch asked. 

"Not yet there wasn't much to go off so we're just trying to get a dental match from the lab," Garcia explained. 

"Alright, we can look at this further on the jet, wheels up in 20."

~

"Why are you staring at Spencer so much today?" Emily asked, joining me in the kitchen of the jet.

"He cut his hair!" I hissed. 

"So?" She raised her eyebrows at me in question. 

"He cut his hair and he _still_ looks good, in fact he looks _better_! When does that ever happen?"

"Ooo, Parker, I think you've got the hots for Dr Reid!" My pause in response was all she needed to confirm that she was right. "Oh my god, you do!"

" _Shut up_ , you can't say a word to anyone! It's just a stupid crush, it'll pass." Emily was stood there grinning from ear to ear, I knew she wouldn't be able to keep her mouth shut for long. "I mean it, not a word!"

I poured two large cups of coffee and walked back to my seat, handing the cup that had more sugar than actual coffee in it to Spencer. We had the table to ourselves, a mass of books about the history of witch trials spread across it, which Spencer had read at least half of already. 

"You know, Windsor was actually the place where the first American execution for witchcraft happened in 1647, the girl the executed was called Alse Young. Before Connecticut's final witch trial took place in 1697, forty-six people were accused of witchcraft in that state and 11 were put to death for the crime," I explained as I sat back down.

"I want to see the crime scene first, see if it fits the methodology of witch trials before we jump to any conclusions," Spencer replied, barely looking up from his book. 

"Parker, Reid and Rossi, you three can go look at the crime scenes, JJ and I will go to the morgue and Prentiss and Morgan, I want the two of you to catch up with the local police department, get a profile going on this unsub," Hocth announced. 

Spencer and I grinned at each other; it wasn't very often we got teamed off together. 

"Oh great, I get to babysit the kid geniuses," Rossi scoffed. 

"Oh please, we're going to be the ones babysitting you, old man. Hope you can keep up because I'm not slowing down for you," I replied, grinning at him as he just sat there, staring at me, completely speechless. 

"There's another body," Garcia's face said popped up on one of the screens again. "Burnt at the stake again. However, this time someone spotted the fire and put it out so there's more let to work with." Garcia's face changed to an image: the remains of the body wrapped in a red cloak. 

I turned and looked at Spencer with my eyebrows raised. "Still need to look at the crime scene to see if it fits the methodology?" His mouth just twitched slightly as he held back his smile. Leaning back in his chair, he took a deep breath and carried on looking through his case file. 

~

I squinted through the sun as the three of us approached the crime scene, the dry land crunching beneath my boots. 

"Hello, nice to meet you!" I grinned at the officers surrounding the body, holding my hand out for them to shake. "I'm SSA Dr Parker and this is SSA Dr Reid and SSA Rossi, who found the body?"

"Firemen came out after someone called to report an out-of-control bonfire, they found they body after they put the fire out." I nodded at the officer, pulling on my gloves as I crouched down next to the body.

"Hey Spence, come look at this," I murmured, pulling back the robe to reveal a mark on the woman's chest. 

"She was branded," he replied, nodding at me. I stood up, dusting off the dirt on my knees before taking my gloves off. 

"I told you I was right," I sang in Spencer’s ear as we walked towards where Rossi was talking to the officers. He yanked on my ponytail, pulling me backwards and started laughing hysterically at my shocked expression. "And you call me childish?" I rolled me eyes at him. "We are at work, be _professional_ Dr Reid."

"Learn to behaveyourself then. Besides, you started it," he whispered in my ear quietly. 

"If you two are done messing around, Hotch wants us all at the station. We're ready to give a profile," Rossi smirked at us both. 

~

"We believe we are looking for a white male in his mid-to-late 30's. He a highly disorganised killer, targeting women who he believes to be witches and putting them on trial for their behaviour," Hotch explained. 

"He most likely lives an isolated lifestyle because he lacks the social skills to build a relationship with anyone, women in particular," Spencer added. "It's also likely that this unsaid suffers with some kind of Delusion Disorder in which he actually believes that he is doing the right thing by putting these women on trial."

"Be on the lookout for anyone who stands out as particularly unusual, visibly uncomfortable in social situations, an obsessive interest in history, he may even speak and dress as though he is from the 1400's. He has probably changed jobs multiple times but always ends up working somewhere with women in power which causes him to feel threatened. That feeling is what ultimately leads him to believe these women are practicing witchcraft, he won't be able to distinguish the difference between his delusions and reality," I stated, looking across to Spencer. 

"He's also branding his victims and dressing them in red cloaks so he will have access to all of the items and skills required to do this," Spencer said. 

"Thank you, we'll update you when we have more information." Hotch led us all into a conference room, where Morgan and Prentiss had started on the geographical profile. 

I dug into the burger that had been placed in front of me, finishing it in five bites before finishing half of Spencer’s too. One thing I loved about America was their food, and I was thoroughly grateful that someone had remembered to feed us on this case. 

"God, I am starving," I mumbled, shoving a handful of fries into my mouth. 

"Aren't you always?" Spencer replied, head buried in his case file again. 

"Rude." I stuck my tongue out at him. 

"How old are you again, Madeline?" I just giggled, making a vulgar gesture at him. 

Derek's phone rang, distracting Hotch from the disapproving look he was giving me for swearing at work. 

"Speak to me, mama," Derek said, putting his phone on speaker in the middle of thew table.

"I think I've found someone who fits your profile. A Mr Peter Quinn, he's 33 and lived with his parents who were both History lectures in the local college until they mysteriously died after having fits. He also works at a library which all three victims had recently been to, I'm sending you his address now."

"Thanks Garcia," Hotch said, "let's go."

When we arrived at the unsubs home, I knew something was off right away, it was too quiet. They searched the house for him but came up empty, other than the mass of history books, confirming our suspicions. I headed round the back, spotting a small, brick building in the distance with smoke coming out of a chimney.

"I've got your back, Kiddo, go on," Rossi said, coming up behind me. I nodded at him, heading towards the building. 

Rossi moved around the back as I kicked the door down, holding the unsub at gunpoint. He grabbed a thick metal pole from next to the fire and swung for me, but I dodged the blow, tackling him to the ground before he had chance to swing again. I'd just tightened the handcuffs behind his back when Rossi came in, placing his gun back in his holster as he saw me. 

"Told you I wasn't going to wait for you, old man." I grinned at him, pushing the unsub out of the building towards his house. 

"That you did," Rossi mumbled, shaking his head. 

When we got back on the plane, I started winding Spencer up again by trying to prove how much smarter I was until he snatched my book out of my hands, holding it in the air so I couldn't reach it. 

"Give it back," I sighed, folding my arms across my chest. 

"No." His eye's sparkling as he grinned at me.

"How old are you again Spencer?" I mocked, repeating his words from earlier before reaching for his hand, only to have him move it further out of my reach. 

"Admit that I'm smarter than you and then I'll give it back," he shrugged. 

"Never."

"Well then, I guess you're never getting this book back." I glared at him, trying my absolute hardest not to let myself smile. 

"All day I've had to put up with their bickering, _all day_!" Rossi grumbled to the rest of the team. Even Hotch smirked at his words.

"It is not _bickering_ , we are having a heated debate over who is more intelligent," I explained, snatching for my book again as Spencer lowered his arm slightly.

"Could've fooled me." Was all he replied before turning his attention back to his drink.


	8. Chapter 8

"How did your date go?" JJ asked, leaning on my desk. In the last two months I'd been letting the girls set me up on dates, which had all gone terribly. 

"Awful," I rolled my eyes. "He kept doing a fake British accent to try and be funny, I swear all Americans are just complete wankers."

"Oh god," she mumbled, laughing into her coffee.

"I'm done with dating, never again. I'll quite happily die alone with my only books to keep me company." I leaned back on my chair, kicking my feet up onto my desk. "I'm supposed to be going out with some girl that Garcia has set me up with, but I don't know if I can face it."

"You should at least give her a chance Maddie; she might be alright." 

"I suppose, she's taking me to the theatre or something so at least there won't be much talking, and I can _maybe_ get a shag out of it." She laughed at me as Morgan and Garcia joined her at my desk.

"You're worse than me with that language Princess," Morgan said as I stuck my finger up at him. "Hey, pretty boy," he sang to Spencer as he sat down at his desk next to me, handing me a mug of coffee. "You got any plans this weekend?"

"I'm actually going to a Korean film festival on Saturday," he replied, "I have a spare ticket if you want to come Maddie, I know you like those movies. Most won't have any subtitles yet because they've not been officially released but I can whisper the translation for you."

"She can't, she has a date on Saturday," Garcia squealed and I saw Derek nudging her in warning to keep her mouth shut. I wanted to crawl into a hole, this was so awkward.

"Oh okay, that's no problem. Enjoy your date." He smiled at me, but I could see the hurt in his eyes. 

"Sorry Spence, that sounds really good but next time, yeah?" I cringed as he nodded. The other three had disappeared, clearly feeling just as awkward as I did. I felt really bad, a night with Spencer Reid whispering in my ear sounded perfect.

The day dragged by slowly, Spencer couldn't even look at me properly. Every time I tried to joke around or wind him up, he just shut me down. He was packing up his stuff ready to leave when I leaned over to his desk. 

"Hey Spence, um my date bailed on Saturday, do you still have a spare ticket to the film festival?" I asked him.

"Really?" His face lit up.

"Yeah, I'm kind of glad to be honest. I'm fed up with all these dates and I really wanted to go to the festival."

"Yes, of course," he was smiling again as we headed to the elevator. "I think it's going to be great; you'll love it." He was rambling off facts about the Korean movies, trying to teach me a few basic phrases so I wasn't completely lost. He was so excited; I knew I'd made the right choice. 

Saturday night with Spencer was as perfect as I'd imagined it to be, if not better. He kept his promise of translating everything for me, which was an absolute dream, and he got so excited when remembered some of the phrases he'd taught me. I would've thought we were on a date if he hadn't kept his hands completely to himself. There was no playful fighting or any of the cuddling like we had our last movie nights, I took the hint that I was right about us just being friends. 

"Why did you cancel your date with Sienna on Saturday?" Garcia exclaimed, storming over to my desk. Thankfully Spencer had gone to get us both some food from the kitchen, so he was out of earshot, but I cringed even still, Garcia's voice was _very_ loud. "And why didn't you tell me, I text her to ask how it went and she tells me that you told her you got called into work and couldn't make it which is a straight up lie!"

"Garcia, keep your voice down!" I hissed as Morgan walked up besides her.

"You cancelled your date to go out with pretty boy didn't you, Princess?" He smirked. 

"Maybe," I buried my face in my hands. "I told him Sienna cancelled on me though so don't say anything, I didn't want him to think I was only with him because I felt bad."

"Wait, you like _Spencer_?" Garcia squealed.

"No!" I clenched my jaw. "It's not like that I swear." 

"Oh, come on Baby girl, of course she does. You must see the way they look at each other!" Derek was grinning at me. 

"Be quiet, he is my best friend and nothing more."

"You cancelled a date to hang out with him, Maddie. You're so wrong." I glared at them both, heat rising to my cheeks as I saw Spencer walking back over to his desk. 

~

We were in the cars on our way to our latest unsubs house, a young man who had been setting off bombs all over the city in a poor attempt to gain some fame. I was sat in the passenger seat with Rossi driving, the rest of the team in front of us. It was dark outside, almost midnight, and I was racked with nerves. I could hear through my earpiece that Spencer and JJ had already arrived at his house and had gone in to search for him, my stomach tightened with anxiety. So much could go wrong with these types of cases. 

Rossi and I pulled up to the house two minutes later and I leapt out of the car ready to run in, only to be stopped by Hotch. 

"JJ, get out of here." I heard Spencer’s voice say quietly through my earpiece. 

"Don't get any closer, or I'll blow us all up," the unsub's muffled voice said. My heart was racing in my chest, what the fuck was Spencer playing at. He needed to get out of there and wait for the bomb squad before he got himself killed. 

"You don't want to do this," Spencer started as I saw JJ walk back out through the front doors of the house. My stomach dropped. "If you blow yourself up now, no one will ever know this was your work and you won't get the recognition you deserve."

I started heading into the house, fully ready to drag Spencer out of there before he did something stupid, but Rossi grabbed me by shoulders. 

"Don't, kiddo," he said, holding me back. 

"Get off me! He's going to get himself killed!" I yelled, trying to wriggle free from his grip. 

"And what? You're going to run in there and get _your_ self killed too?" He snapped, holding on to me tighter.

"I'm not going to just leave him there!" I couldn't breathe. My chest was so tight I felt like it might explode.

"He's smart, Parker. He knows what he's doing, trust him." 

I heard a gunshot through the earpiece and I almost sighed in relief as I saw Spencer walk through the doors until an explosion inside the house sent him flying forwards.

"SPENCER!" I screamed out. My ears started ringing from the blast and my knees went weak. Rossi was still holding onto me as I collapsed to the floor, still screaming out for Spencer, who was now lied on the floor, not moving. I was sobbing in Rossi's arms, watching the medics attend to him. 

"He's alive, Kiddo," Rossi said to me, rubbing one of my arms. "He's going to be fine. Come on, let’s get you up off the floor." I took a shaky breath, reaching for Rossi's hand as he pulled me up off the floor. "They're taking him to the hospital, we can meet him there." I just nodded, not really knowing what to say.

~

"He's fine. He has a bad concussion from hitting head pretty hard on the floor, but there's no damage. He's still unconscious but you can go see him if you want, he should be waking up soon," the doctor explained. 

"Oh, thank god!" I sighed, following the doctor to Spencer’s room. I stood at the foot of his bed; the rest of the team stood close behind me. 

"My poor baby, he looks like Hell," Garcia whispered and I glared at her. 

"We'll leave you with him, come get us when he wakes up." Rossi placed a comforting hand on my shoulder before dragging Garcia out of the room. 

I pulled the chair up close next to his bed, sitting with my legs crossed and pulled out a book from my bag. I placed my hand on top of his, drawing small circles with my fingers. Garcia was right, he did look like hell. I sat there for about 5 minutes, just watching him sleep peacefully until I opened the book and started reading out loud to him. 

"Are you reading the Narrative of John Smith to me?" Spencer's voice croaked out as he grabbed hold of my hand. 

"Oh my god, you're awake!" I half shouted as I started sobbing again, throwing the book on the floor.

"Why are you crying?" He asked, sitting up with a frown.

"Why am I _crying_ , Spencer? Do you know how scared I was, I thought I'd lost my best fucking friend!" He just started at me; I couldn't read his face. "You stupid, stupid boy! Don't you ever do that to me again, do you understand? I thought you had died!" I playfully swatted him on the arm. "You're supposed be smart Dr Reid! You should know better than to get yourself in such a dumb situation!"

"Maddie, I'm fine. You've got nothing to worry about." I could tell he was trying to calm me down, but he was only making it worse. 

"You are in the _hospital_ , Spencer. You are not fine!"

"For _observation_! I can go home in an hour, you're being irrational! I can't believe you're actually mad at me for doing my job." I glared at him, my chest heaving as I wiped the tears from my face. 

"I'm going to tell the rest of the team that you're awake." I turned and stormed out of the room, ignoring him calling my name. I didn't even know why I was so mad at him. 

"He's awake," I sighed, sitting down in a chair in the waiting room. 

"You good, kiddo?" Rossi said. I just nodded, smiling at him. 

I managed to avoid Spencer the whole jet ride home, it wasn't until we were back in the office that I realised he was giving me a lift home and I couldn't ignore him any longer.

"You ready to go?" He asked, heading towards the elevator.

"Yup," I replied, following him. 

"Maddie, I think we should talk." His face was unreadable again, but he was twiddling his thumbs nervously and scrunching his nose. 

"About what?"

"Us." He pushed a button to call the lift. My heart was beating out of my chest as he looked down at me. I swallowed hard. "I heard Garcia saying that you cancelled your date to hang out with me." My stomach dropped as he rambled on. "At first I thought it was because you felt bad for me, especially because you keep going on about how you don't want to date and constantly telling people that we are 'just friends'. I thought you were hinting to me that you didn't want anything between us. But, the way you reacted in the hospital. We get hurt all the time in this job and that reaction was way over the top, even if we are best friends."

"What are you saying?" I whispered, stepping into the lift after him. 

"I see the way you look at me sometimes because, it's the same way I look at you." I gaped at him as he lowered his voice, taking a step closer to me. "Am I wrong?"

"N-No..."

There wasn't a moment of hesitation as he crashed his mouth to mine, his hands gripping the sides of my face tightly. I moaned slightly, gripping onto his shirt to pull him closer to me. One of his hands moved round the back of my head, tugging on my hair gently and I opened my mouth in response, letting his tongue graze across my bottom lip as he moaned into my mouth. I couldn't focus on anything other than how soft his mouth felt against mine until the ding of the lift doors opening pulled my back to reality. I had to push him off me, not wanting to the kiss to end as he clung to my face, fighting against me. He was breathing heavy, his pupils dilated and his cheeks flushed when he finally pulled away, his lips slightly pink and swollen. I'm sure I looked exactly the same. I had no idea _a kiss_ could make me feel so much in such short amount of time. 

"You have no idea how long I have wanted to do that," he murmured, finally letting my face go as he grabbed my hand, walking off towards his car.


	9. Chapter 9

I was still smiling when I collapsed onto my bed after Spencer had dropped me off. My fingers tracing over my lips at the memory of where Spencer's mouth had just been. I heard my phone buzz on the table next to me and I ignored it, presuming it was either my mum or brother trying to speak to me again, I wasn't planning on letting either of them ruin my good mood. My phone buzzed again and it wasn't until I realised it could be Spencer texting me that I decided to check it. I was throughly disappointed to see I had two messages: one from my mum and one from Garcia. 

I unlocked my phone, my mum's message was her asking me to ring her. I didn't think anything of it until I saw Garcia's message. 

_Call your mom. NOW!_

My stomach was in knots as the line rang, the one time I actually wanted to speak to my mum she wasn't answering. 

"Hey, Mads," Kit said as he picked up the phone. 

"Hey, what's going on? Where's mum?" I replied.

"She's with Dad and Cody."

"Okay? Why is Garcia texting me, demanding that I ring mum right this second?" I was getting impatient with him. "Kit, stop being a prick and tell me what's going on!"

"It's dad..."

**~ SPENCER ~**

He had kissed her. Spencer had kissed her and she had kissed him back. He couldn't believe it. Spencer felt giddy as he crawled into bed that night, finally able to have a full nights sleep for the first time in months. Though his mood drastically changed when he woke up that morning to a text from Maddie. 

_Hey, don't need a lift in morning, will talk soon. X_

He just presumed that she was driving herself because she had a meeting or needed to go into work early, it still hurt that she hadn't just asked him to go in early with her. Maybe she was avoiding him. He tried not to overthink it as he made his usual drive to work, the car feeling extremely lonely and quiet without Maddie singing along badly to the radio next to him. 

"Good morning," he said to his colleagues as he sat down at his desk, who all offered him a small smile or a wave in return. He was about to start on his usual pile of paperwork until Hotch called the team into the conference room with another case. 

"Where's Maddie?" Spencer asked, noticing her lack of absence in the conference room. Maybe she wasn't coming into work at all. 

"She had to fly back home, said it was a family emergency so she won't be here for a few weeks," Hotch explained. 

"Why? What happened?" He asked, brows furrowing as he wondered why she hadn't told him she'd gone home to England. 

"She didn't tell you? Her dad's sick, like only has a few weeks left to live sick," Garcia said, a sad look passing over her face. 

"She told you that?" 

"No, Kit told me, he knows the only way he can get Maddie to speak to any of them is if I make her ring." She offered up a small smile which made Spencer feel slightly better, he still didn't know why Maddie hadn't told him. 

"Reid, sit down. I know you guys are close and she probably needs a friend more than anything right now, but we need you more on this case," Hotch stated, noting the hesitation on Spencer's face. 

Spencer sighed as he sat down in his chair, all he wanted to do was get on the next plane to England so he could be there for Maddie. 

It wasn't a case they needed to travel for, so Spencer had a geographical profile written up for the unsub by lunchtime. He looked at his watch, 1:30pm, it was a 12-hour flight back to the UK which meant Maddie still wouldn't have landed yet. He thought about ringing her anyway and leaving a voicemail, but he couldn't think of anything to say. 

"You okay, pretty boy?" Morgan asked, coming up behind him and making him jump. 

"What? Yeah, I'm fine," he offered a small smile, but he could tell he didn't believe it. 

"I know you want to be with Parker right now. I'm sure if you speak to Hotch he'll let you visit her for a few days when the case is over." Spencer just nodded along with his words. "It's not like she's alone, she's got her family with her."

"I know, I- I just don't can't stop thinking about her," Spencer sighed, swallowing the lump in his throat. "I'm really worried about her; she was really close with her dad."

"She's going to be fine, just get through this case and she'll be back before you know it," he offered up, placing a comforting hand on his arm before walking away to his desk.

It was nearing 5pm and the team were no closer to catching the unsub than they were that morning, it was driving Spencer insane. He was sat reading over the paperwork, trying to make a connection between the victims when his phone rang. He lunged for it, seeing Maddie's name flash across the screen.

"Maddie!" He breathed down the phone.

"Hello, Dr Reid," she replied. Although her voice sounded raw like she had been crying, he could still picture the cocky smirk that was probably plastered across her face.

"Are you okay?" What a stupid question, Spencer thought, of course she wasn't okay.

"As good as I can be, I presume Garcia told you all," she sniffled.

"She said your dad is sick," he explained. 

"Yeah," Maddie let out an empty laugh. "He went to the doctors about a headache that he'd had for a few weeks, they did a scan and found a massive inoperable tumour in his brain. He was diagnosed with a stage 4 glioblastoma and they've basically sent him home to die because there's nothing they can do for him."

"I am so sorry, Maddie." Spencer couldn't stop the tears from spilling down his cheeks.

"Cody is a wreck and so is my mum, Kit and I are trying to hold it together for my dad but it's so hard. It's just not fair," she sniffed again, and her voice broke slightly. "I wish you'd had chance to meet him, he would've loved you so much."

"I know, Maddie. I wish I could be there for you, but I'm stuck on a case and they won't let me leave," he sighed, his heart breaking at the sound of her crying.

"I wouldn't expect you to leave Spence, work is far more important." He heard her take a shaky breath as he leant his back against the wall. "I miss you."

"I miss you, too." 

"Tell me about the case, I need a distraction. I tried to get Garcia to email me everything so I could help from here, but she wasn't having any of it." Spencer let out a laugh, of course she was trying to do work still, even with everything else going on. 

"You should get some rest," he suggested, but he knew Maddie wouldn't take no for an answer.

"Please Spence, I'll just drive myself crazy by researching about different types of brain tumours and cancers and all the different types of treatments that he won't be getting."

"I'm surprised you don't know all that already, I thought you were supposed to be smarter than me." 

"I _am_ , you cheeky bastard." He could hear her grinning down the phone. "My interest in neurology focuses more on the psychology side, I'm not too hot on the cancer info, bit morbid of you ask me. Tell me about the case."

"Fine. Four completely different victims all killed by the same exact MO, I've done the geographical profile, but I can't find anything that can possibly link these victims together."

"What's the MO?"

"Strangulation after severe beating with a blunt object." Spencer ran a hand through his hair.

"So, it's personal. Any signs of sexual assault?" 

"No." 

"Will you send me everything so I can have a look properly?"

"Yeah, hang on let me just get Garcia and everyone here so they can help too."

"Thank you, Spencer," she whispered, his stomach tightening slightly. 

Spencer knew he was probably doing the wrong thing as headed back to the conference room, putting his phone on speaker in the middle of the table, but it was what she wanted, and it was the only way he could think to be there for her without actually being there for her. Plus, it meant they had more chance of solving the case, and the quicker they did, the quicker he could go see Maddie.

"It's Parker," he nodded to the phone, "Garcia, I need you to send Maddie everything on this case, Kit's going to set up his laptop and everything so he can video call her in."

"You went behind my back, Parker? I said no to you for a reason!" Garcia exclaimed. "Reid, you have absolutely no backbone." Spencer frowned, not knowing what she meant by that. 

"Your reason wasn't valid, I did what I had to do," Maddie sighed down the phone. "Besides, it sounds like you guys need my help."

"Are you sure you're up for it Parker, you know you don't need to do this?" Hotch said, his brow furrowed.

"Yeah, I know. I'm fine, I'm not going to be able to sleep so I may as well do something productive." Spencer wished he had at least half of her courage.

"What time is it over there?" JJ asked, frowning at her watch as she tried to figure out the maths.

"Erm, almost half 10 at night, my bodies still on American time though."

"Alright Parker, can you put Kit on for me so I can set it all up for you?" Garcia chimed in, typing away on her computer. 

"Sure," she replied. "KIT! Get your arse here, Garcia wants you." I couldn't help but chuckle, that girl could never do anything professionally.

10 minutes later Maddie's face was up on the screen, she was sat on a sofa with her glasses on and her tied up in a messy bun as she chewed on the end of her pen. She was reading through all the paperwork when someone sat down next to her, who Spencer presumed was Kit. She hadn't been lying when she said they were like twins; they were almost identical in both their looks and mannerisms.

"Oh, I've missed your beautiful face!" Garcia exclaimed.

"Garcia, I’ve only been gone a day," Maddie snorted. 

"That's already too long," she whined back. "And you, beautiful boy, must be Kit."

"Pleasure to finally meet you, kind of." Kit grinned at the screen.

"You guys are so alike, it's almost creepy!"

"Penelope," Maddie warned, raising her eyebrows in a stern look. "Right, what do you know so far about this unsub?"

"He's a white male in either his 40's or 50's, the victims are all of mixed races, genders, and sexuality so we can rule out hate crime," Hotch stated.

"None of their paths cross in the geographical profile, what ages were the victims?" Maddie's brows furrowed as she started writing down a bunch of information. 

"23, 47, 39 and 54," Spencer explained.

"So, the victimology is completely random. What about the victim’s jobs?" Maddie's brows were furrowed tight, trying to put together the pieces of the case.

"All different: student, journalist, nurse and retired. None of them are from similar backgrounds either."

"Have you thought about how this might be the work of a hitman?" Kit questioned; Spencer’s head snapped up.

"That could actually make sense, this unsub is a highly organised killer, and the personal nature of the kills means that he would have to be a sadist." Spencer explained, shuffling through his notes.

"Especially seeing as there is no sexual assault which usually occurs with sadists." Maddie added, "Garcia, can you pull up records of everyone who lives in that state who may have a military or police background and has been out of work since they left the forces."

"Do you want to be any less specific, that list is huge!" Garcia exclaimed.

"What about if you narrowed it down for people who were dishonourably discharged from the services?" Prentiss added. Spencer nodded along, realising where she was going.

"Better, I've got my list down to 20 people."

"Baby girl, can you go through their financial records? See if any of the have made large deposits or suddenly started spending large amounts of money?" Morgan asked.

"I can but it's going to take me a while, that's a lot of data to go through."

"I'll help, you do the first 10 on the list and I'll look at the other half," Kit suggested, typing away on his own computer. Spencer watched Maddie roll her eyes at her brothers’ eagerness to be involved. "I've got one, Duncan Rhodes, last month paid off almost $50,000 worth of debt and then this month also signed the paperwork for three really expensive houses but paid the down payment in cash." 

"That's gotta be our guy," JJ said, raising her eyebrows.

"I'm sending you his address now!" Kit explained, Spencer frowned at how weird that sounded coming from Kit's mouth and not Garcia's. By the look on Maddie's face, she was thinking the same too. 

"Alright, let’s go! Thank you." Hotch gathered up his things and headed out the door.

"Be safe, I'll stay on the line in case you need me!" Maddie called out.

Spencer’s phone buzzed as he got in the car, he knew who it would be without having to check.

_If me solving a case that you'd been struggling with all day in less than 30 minutes doesn't prove how much smarter I am than you, I don't know what will._

He smiled to himself as he read it, his phone buzzing again with a second message before he had chance to reply. 

_Be safe. If you even think about doing anything else dumb, I will kick ur arse the second I'm home. X_


	10. Chapter 10

Spencer took in a deep breath as he walked down the long driveway to the address that Garcia had text him, maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all. He knocked on the door and waited, he was almost about to leave when the door opened, and he saw Maddie's bright green eye staring at him. Only, they didn't belong to Maddie.

"Hey, Spencer. Come in, Garcia told me not to say anything to Maddie about you coming," Kit explained. It was crazy how alike he and Maddie actually were, they had the same smile, the same eyes and the same blonde curly hair. 

"Thank you." Spencer stepped into the house, smiling gratefully at Maddie's brother. "I'm sorry about your dad, are you sure it's okay that I'm here?"

"Yeah, of course. Maddie's too stubborn to ever admit it but I know she wants you here, she deserves a bit of happiness for once in her life."

"Thank you for your help on the case, by the way. You were right with everything you said," Spencer smiled, following Kit down a corridor, he could hear laughter and soft piano music coming from one of the rooms. 

"You're welcome, I enjoyed it. Maybe I've got a future career with the FBI, who knows." Kit was grinning, knowing full well how much it would irritate Maddie for them to work together. 

Spencer stood in the doorway to the room, frozen as he spotted Maddie sat at the piano, playing with her dad. He didn't even know she could play and yet there she was, playing the most beautiful piece of music he had ever heard.

"Who was at the door?" The woman asked turning to look at Spencer, as Kit walked in the room. He knew from pictures that Maddie had showed him that she was their mom.

"Mum, Dad, I'd like you to meet Dr Spencer Reid," Kit replied, a cocky grin making its way across his face. The music came to a halt as Maddie's head snapped around to look at him. She blinked at him slowly before leaping across the room into his arms. 

**~ MADDIE ~**

"Oh my god! What are you doing here?" I cried, wrapping my arms around Spencer's neck. He was here. In England. In my parent's house. He chuckled as I squeezed him tighter, breathing in his smell. When I finally found the strength to let go of him, his face was glowing with the brightest smile I had ever seen plastered across it. 

"So, you're Spencer?" My mum said walking over to where we were stood, "Madeline's told us so much about you."

"It's nice to finally meet you, Mrs Parker," he grinned at her. 

"Please, call me Helen." She pulled him in for a hug which he politely - but awkwardly - returned.

"Thank you for coming." My dad held out a hand for Spencer, which I was surprised to see him shake. "You can call me Phil, and this is Cody but he's being a little shit at the minute so good luck getting anything out of him. Put your bags in Mad's room, you're welcome to stay for as long as you like, although I should warn you it's an absolute mad house here. Dinner will be ready in about 30 minutes or so."

"Oh no, that's okay. I'll stay in a hotel; I don't want to intrude." I could see the nerves flash across Spencer’s as he glanced at me for help, but I was enjoying watching him squirm too much. 

"Nonsense, you're staying here Spencer." My dad waved a hand in dismissal at him. 

"Dad, stop. You're being weird, he might not want to stay here with everyone bothering him." I rolled my eyes at him as he walked back to the piano, pulling Spencer along with me as I headed up the stairs. "You don't have to stay here if you don't want to, but I'd really like it if you did."

"Well, I suppose if you _really_ want me to Maddie, how can I say no," he replied. I led him into my room, closing the door behind us.

"Bathroom's in there." I pointed to a door, putting one of his bags down on my bed. "How long are you staying?"

"Hotch would only let me take a week off, which is technically only five days because two count for travelling," he sighed. "You never told me you can play the piano."

"You never asked," I smirked at him. It was so weird seeing Spencer in my childhood bedroom. He was wandering around, looking at all the pictures and books on my shelves. "I don't really play anymore anyway."

"I think Hotch might be trying to get Kit to come work at the BAU, he seemed awfully impressed with his work yesterday," Spencer chuckled as I turned my nose up in disgust. 

"Don't even joke about something like that," I said, shaking my head at him. No way was I going to work with Kit. 

"Your dad seems to be doing okay," he offered up, making his way to sit next to me on the end of my bed. 

"It's a good day, he's got another scan tomorrow to see if the cancer has metastasised any further. It's already in his bone and lungs too." 

"Are you going with him?" He placed a comforting hand on my thigh, sending butterflies straight to my stomach.

I sighed, giving him a pointed look. "No, I'm banned from attending his hospital appointments because I corrected the doctor's math _one time_!" Spencer's mouth twitched as he tried not to laugh at me. I watched him as he licked his lips, scrunching his nose slightly before looking down at me, I thought back to when he had kissed me and how badly I wanted him to do it again. His eyes searched mine as he placed a soft hand on my face, tilting my chin up slightly, his hot breath tickling my cheeks. My eyes fluttered shut as he ran his thumb across my bottom lip.

"Maddie-" My bedroom door slammed open as Kit ran in, grinning as he saw what he'd walked in to. "Oops." 

"What?" I half shouted, my eyes snapping open. 

"Food's ready," he raised his eyebrows at us both. "But you two finish up in here first, we can wait." He laughed, pulling his phone out as he walked off. 

"I'm gonna kill him," I gritted my teeth, turning my attention back to Spencer who was still holding my face. He grinned down at me, a soft blush creeping up his cheeks. I gave him a quick kiss before taking his hand and pulling him downstairs with me. 

I sat at the dinner table next to my dad, Spencer taking the seat on my other side.

"Hope you've both washed your hands," Kit snorted, Cody laughing with him as my mum choked on her drink. 

"Fuck _off,_ Kit!" I glared at him. 

"Language Maddie," my mum sighed, finally composing herself. "Stop winding your sister up Christopher."

"So, you're a Doctor Spencer?" My dad asked, "what's your Ph.D. in?"

"Maths, chemistry and engineering," Spencer said proudly.

"Fucking hell," Cody muttered under his breath and my mum gave him a warning stare. 

"And you and Maddie work together?" Kit was looking all too pleased with himself, grinning as my dad questioned Spencer.

"Yeah, we're both profilers with the FBI," Spencer replied, smiling softly. 

"Kit, phone away at the table please," my mum said, Kit rolling his eyes at her. I took another mouthful of my food, Spencer seemed weirdly comfortable considering how mad this dinner was. Nothing was ever easy in this house, nearly every meal ended in an argument and I hadn't realised how loud we all actually were until now. My phone buzzed, Garcia's name flashing across with a text notification and I glared at Kit, trying not to think about what he could have possibly told her. 

"Do you enjoy working there?" My dad was clearly oblivious to all the drama. 

Spencer nodded eagerly, finishing his mouthful of food. "I love it, I've been there for almost 7 years now. Maddie told me you're a forensic linguist? I bet that's interesting." 

"It was, I loved my job," my dad sighed. He really did love his job; I could see the sadness in his eyes as he realised, he would probably work another day in his life.

"Spencer can speak like 10 languages dad," I offered up, trying to change the conversation as I turned to look at Spence. "So can my dad, he made us all learn French and German growing up."

"I thought Pen was joking when she said you were a genius," Kit murmured.

"Stop speaking to Garcia, it's _weird_ \- you've never even met her," I hissed, kicking him under the table. He just smirked at me, raising his eyebrow slightly. 

"You're just mad because your boyfriends smarter than you," Cody chimed in. 

"He's a 'work colleague' Cody, not her boyfriend," Kit mocked, making quotations with his fingers as he said the words. "Although, I don't recall ever kissing anyone that I've ever worked with or taken a week off and flown 12 hours just to see them."

"Enough," my mum shouted, pointing her finger at the boys, clearly very embarrassed by their behaviour in front of Spencer. 

"Screw you," I spat, clattering my knife and fork down onto my plate in exasperation.

"Isn't Spencer the one you're screwing?" Kit spat back, smirking at me. 

"Christopher!" My dad shouted, causing us all to jump. Dad never raised his voice at us. 

"Okay, well as _lovely_ as this has been, Spencer and I are going to my room." I rolled my eyes, storming back up the stairs. Spencer mumbled a polite apology to my family before following me. I could hear Cody and Kit still laughing at the table as I shut the door behind us.

Crawling onto my bed, I looked across at Spencer apologetically. "I'm sorry, I wish I could say they're not normally like that but that was a fairly civil meal for us."

"It's alright," he laughed, sitting down next to me. "It was kind of nice, I always wanted a big family growing up." 

"Kit is definitely spreading rumours about us to Garcia," I mumbled, sitting myself up so I could check my phone and read her text.

_MAKE SURE PRETTY BOY WEARS A CONDOM. I'M NOT READY FOR GENIUS GOD-CHILDREN JUST YET._

I just rolled my eyes, throwing my phone on the table before snuggling into Spencer's side. 

"Do you want to watch a movie?" He asked, pulling me onto his knee. 

"Will you read to me?" I looked up at him through my eyelashes. 

"Only if you play the piano for me tomorrow?" A huge smile was plastered across his face.

"Fine." I was giggling as he gripped my chin, forcing me to look up at him. 

"You better not be saying that just so I'll read," he was smiling though his words were stern. 

"Dr Spencer Walter Reid, I swear I will play the piano for you tomorrow if you read to me." He raised his eyebrows at me. "Cross my heart and hope to die," I pouted, drawing a cross over my heart with my finger.

"Go get a book then," he laughed, shoving me off him. I giggled, running off to my shelf to get my copy of Great Expectations. "Good choice," he nodded.

I climbed back onto his knee, pressing my back against his chest with my head resting on his shoulder. As he started reading, he rested his free hand on my hip, his thumb gently stroking my skin. I sighed into the warmth of his embrace, drawing my own patterns with my fingers on his leg. I had almost dozed off when he pressed a kiss to my temple and put the book down. 

"You wanna go to bed?" He whispered, his hand stroking the back of my head. I just nodded, climbing off him and heading to the bathroom to put on a t shirt and a pair of comfy pants. 

When I emerged back into my room, Spencer was stood in just a pair of pyjama bottoms. I swallowed hard; he was absolutely gorgeous. He kissed the top of my head as he walked past me, heading into the bathroom himself.

The bed dipped slightly, and I rolled over to see Spencer lying next to me, my heart fluttering at the sight of him. He reached up a hand to tuck a piece of my hair behind my ear, his hand resting on my cheek.

"Thank you," I whispered, smiling at him. "I'm really glad you're here, Spence."

"Me too," he replied, his thumb rubbing across my cheek as he kissed me. It was not as deep as our last kiss; I could feel him holding back slightly because of the situation. As much as I wanted more, it wasn't the right time, and I didn't want Spencer to think I was using him for a distraction from everything. So, I reluctantly pulled away and wrapped my arms around his body, falling asleep in his warm embrace. 


	11. Chapter 11

"I _really_ don't want to do this," I sighed. "I don't like playing in front of people." I was sat on the stool in front of the Grand Piano that was in the living room, sulking with my arms folded across my chest. Spencer was tapping his fingers on top of it, getting impatient as he waited for me to play. My mum had thankfully dragged both of the boys with her to my dad's appointment, so we were alone in the house. 

"Stop whining and get on with it," he smirked at me.

"So bossy, Dr Reid," I murmured, ignoring the butterflies in my stomach. I stared up at him, bashing one of my fingers on each key as I played a terrible version of twinkle, twinkle, little star. He clenched his jaw, holding back his laughter as he raised his eyebrows at me. "I never said I would play well." I shrugged, laughing at his reaction.

"Dr Parker, if you don't start playing that piano _nicely_ in the next 10 seconds, I will be on the next flight home," he promised, smirking at me. 

"No, you won't."

"Try me," he was grinning at me. 

"I've got my handcuffs with me and I _will_ be using them if you try to leave even a second earlier than you promised," I grinned right back at him, "you're not going anywhere until I say you are."

"I can think of a far better use for those handcuffs," he mumbled, leaning down to kiss me. As I opened my mouth to deepen the kiss he pulled away, gesturing to the piano. "Play." 

"Fine." I sighed, cracking my knuckles before resting my fingers on the keys lightly. 

Taking a deep breath, I began playing. The beginning was slow, an Adagio piece in F sharp major-minor and I could feel myself slowly falling, getting lost in the music despite its intense anxiety and sadness. I thought back to when my dad and I wrote it together, almost 10 years ago now, and how I would never get those years back. I swallowed the lump in my throat, bringing up the tempo as it shifted into the second half of the piece, I didn't even have to look as my fingers danced over the keys, playing this was like second nature. The music turned softer, coming to a quiet end. 

When I finally finished playing, I slowly opened my eyes. I glanced towards Spencer; I'd completely forgotten he was there. I started fidgeting uncomfortably in my chair under his intense stare. 

"Don't tell me I've left _the_ Dr Reid speechless," I breathed.

"Did you write that?" His voice was barely a whisper. I just nodded, not trusting my voice enough to speak. "I- I _am_ speechless," he laughed softly. "I can't think of a single word that would do justice to how phenomenal you are." 

"You're such a soft bastard, I'm never doing that again so don't even bother asking." 

"I have an eidetic memory; I can replay that in my head any time I want." I rolled my eyes at him, turning away to hide the blush that was heating my face, but he gripped my face tight, forcing me to look at him. He opened his mouth to say something but obviously decided against it as he pressed his mouth to mine, kissing me desperately. I slid my hands down his chest, moaning into his mouth as I linked my fingers through his trouser loops, pulling him closer to me. His hands moved to my hair, tugging on it so I leant my head back as he left a trail of sloppy kisses down my neck. 

"Does it make me a horrible person for only being able to think about how badly I want you to fuck me right now, all things considered," I laughed breathlessly. It was true but if I didn't laugh about it, I would only start crying. 

"If it does, then I'm a horrible person too," he muttered back, his teeth nipping at my collar bone. "Maybe we should wait, until we're both a bit more emotionally stable." Though he said the words, his actions didn't suggest he meant it. 

"I don't think I can wait that long," I whispered. His hands slid down the backs of my legs as he picked me up and I wrapped them around his waist, re-joining my mouth to his. I ran my hands through his mess of curls as he lowered me down onto the sofa, pressing his hardness against me. I was just about to reach down and undo his belt when I heard a car door slam from outside, followed by the loud bickering of my brothers. We both froze. " _Fuck sake_ ," I hissed.

Spencer chuckled, letting his head hang down. "Probably for the best, there isn't enough room on this couch to fully experience all the things I plan on doing to you," he muttered, giving me a quick peck before climbing off me, adjusting his trousers as he sat at the other end. I let out a frustrated groan, chucking a cushion to Spencer to cover himself with. 

My mum and dad walked in as I stretched out across the sofa, resting my head on the cushion that was on Spencer's knee. 

"How did it go?" I asked as I heard Cody storm up the stairs and slam his bedroom door behind him. I cringed, hearing him start crying, "That bad?" 

"It's everywhere," my dad cleared his throat. "My blood, my stomach, my kidneys and liver." Spencer placed a reassuring hand on my back, his soft palm warm against my bare skin. I squeezed my eyes shut, swallowing hard against the lump in my throat.

"What have you two been up to while we were gone then?" Kit smirked, sauntering into the room. 

"Madeline was just playing the piano for me, best piece of music I have ever heard," Spencer replied proudly, grinning down at me. The sight of him like that made my heart swell.

"She played for you?" My mum whispered in shock as she took my dad’s hand in hers, squeezing it tightly. I didn't play for anyone, _ever_. Except for my family on rare occasions.

"She did, it was absolutely breath-taking." I grabbed his hand that was on my back, pulling it over my body and held onto it tight as he moved his other hand to rest on my head. His thumb stroked against my hair to say he understood what it meant to me. 

The rest of the day was perfect. My dad's last good day. I was right about how much my dad would love Spencer, whenever he spoke my dad clung to every word he said as though it was the most interesting thing he'd ever heard. I've never known either of them talk so much, it was nice to watch. Even Cody came back down and joined us all when we ordered pizza and watched movies all night. It was almost 1am when we finally decided to retire to bed, Spencer headed up without me as I hung back with my dad. 

"You played for him?" He asked, I nodded wrapping my arms around my body for comfort. "He's a good lad, very sweet. I see why you like him so much."

"He's my best friend," I whispered, hot tears spilling down my cheeks. 

"Hmm I don't know about that, I see the way you two look at each other," he chuckled, sitting down next to me as I brought my knees up to my chest. I leant sideways, resting my head on my dad's shoulder. "What are you so worried about?"

"What if he suddenly realises, I'll never be enough for him? He's way too good for me. And he's so much smarter and older than me and he'll get bored soon enough." My voice was barely audible.

"Surely, you don't actually believe that? He flew 12 hours just to be with you Mads. Besides, no one is even close to being good enough for my little girl, not even Dr Reid." He kissed the top of my head, and I couldn't stop myself from breaking down completely.

"Please don't go Dad, I'm not ready to say goodbye. I need you too much." I sobbed, cling onto him.

"I am so proud of you, you know that right? No matter what. I love you so much, kiddo. You'll always be my little superstar." His voice broke.

"I love you more," I whispered. 

That night, I didn't even bother changing my clothes before crawling into Spencer's arms and crying myself to sleep. He didn't say anything, he just let me cry until my voice was raw, gently stroking my body to soothe me.

**~ SPENCER ~**

Maddie's dad died two days later, and Spencer had to fly home the day after. He had a horrible knot in his stomach as he hugged her family goodbye, he really didn't want to leave but there was no way he would be able to get more time off work without raising suspicion. It didn't feel right to just leave them all. 

The drive to the airport was quiet, Maddie wasn't singing along to the radio like she usually did. Spencer wished there was something he could say or do to take away all of her pain but there wasn't anything.

She took his hand as she walked him to his gate at the airport, her small hands fitting perfectly in his. 

"Thank you again for being here, I don't know that I could've done it without you," she whispered, looking up at him with her bright green eyes. She truly was beautiful; Spencer didn't know how he got so lucky to have her in his life. 

"I wish I could stay longer," he smiled softly, his heart hurting at the thought of having to leave her.

"It's okay, I'll be back home in a week anyway." She grinned before kissing him gently. "Text me when you land, be safe." She kissed him again before playfully shoving him in the direction of the plane. 

~

"Maddie's dad died," Spencer announced to the team as he walked into work that morning. 

"Oh, Spence I'm so sorry, how's she doing?" JJ asked, pulling him in for a hug.

"She's doing okay, the funeral is on Thursday, so she'll said be back by Monday." The rest of the team hugged him, passing on their love for Maddie. Garcia included, though he presumed she already knew everything from Kit anyway. 

The next week at work without Maddie dragged - it was clear what an impact she had made on the team even in the short time she'd been there. She had text him a few times to let him know that she was okay but missed him and the funeral had gone well. 

"Have you spoke to Parker today?" Garcia asked, sitting on the edge of Spencer’s desk. It was a slow Friday afternoon, she had been wearing dark, morbid colours all week in a very un-Garcia like style. Her make was smudged around her eyes like she'd been crying, Spencer presumed she'd just got off the phone to Kit again. 

"Not yet, I'll ring her when I'm home. What about Kit?" Spencer replied, sinking down into his chair. 

"He's a mess," she nodded, wiping a tear that rolled down her face. Spencer frowned, in the whole week that he had been there, Kit had hardly shown any emotions. He shook his head, he and Garcia could only be a good thing, especially if Kit was opening up to her. 

"It's not fair, he was such a good person," Spencer mumbled, staring at the empty chair at Maddie’s desk. Garcia wrapped her arms around Spencer, squeezing him tightly. 

When Spencer arrived back at his apartment that night, Maddie was sat on the steps waiting for him. She stood up, grinning brightly as she saw him park his car and he ran out, picking her up in his arms as he hugged her.


	12. Chapter 12

"What are you doing here? I thought you weren't back until tomorrow?" Spencer breathed, nuzzling his face into my neck. God, I had missed him so much, I was so glad to be back home.

"I couldn't stay there any longer," I replied, giggling as his hair tickled my face. "I thought you probably missed me too much." Being in that house without my dad there just wasn't right and as guilty as I felt about leaving Kit to deal with my mum and Cody, I knew coming home would be the best thing for me. 

"You have no idea," he whispered, "you coming inside?" I nodded, following him into his apartment. 

As soon as the door had shut, I had Spencer pushed up against the wall, crashing my mouth against his. I needed him, and I needed him now. Spencer gripped my hair, and I ran my hands down his front, palming his dick through his trousers. 

"Maddie..." he warned, pulling away from the kiss as he held my face. His eyes searched mine, worry plaguing his face. 

"Please, Spence." I started fumbling with his belt, trying to get it undone and he grabbed my wrists tight, pulling me off him.

"What do you need?" 

"I just want to _feel_ something." He spun my around, pressing me up against the wall with my arms pinned up above my head as he started kissing me again. I whimpered as he moved one his hands down, wrapping his fingers around my throat. He smiled into my mouth at the noise, leaning his full body into me with his hardness pressing against me. My hands dropped and I moved them straight to his belt that was now undone but he pulled away from me completely, causing me to groan in frustration. He just grabbed me by the back of my neck, shoving me forwards towards his bedroom. 

"Stop pouting, I'm still going to fuck you, just not against the wall," he muttered in my ear, squeezing my neck tighter. "We can save _that_ , for another time." My stomach tightened with anticipation. 

His mouth reconnected with mine the second we entered his room, his hands ripping off my clothes before I even had chance to realise what he was doing. I tugged at his shirt, trying to take it off him but I couldn't focus enough because of how much he was touching me, and I kept fumbling over his buttons. 

"Just fucking take it off," I whined, his mouth trailing down my neck as he reached round my back to take off my bra. His eyes darkened as he pulled away, kicking off his trousers and pulling his shirt over his head, not even bothering with the buttons. My mouth was watering at the sight of him stood there in nothing but his boxers which were tight against his bulge. "Are you going to fuck me now or are you going to make me beg for it Dr Reid?" I murmured, closing the small distance between us as I reached up on my tiptoes to kiss him lightly.

He roughly grabbed me, pushing me backwards onto the bed, his soft hand wrapping around my throat as he leant over me. "Not today Dr Parker, but one day I will," he growled in my ear, making my toes curl. He let go of my throat and I tried to sit up and reach for his boxers again, but he just pushed me back down, pinning my arms above my head. "Stop being so impatient and let me appreciate you."

"You've got all night to appreciate me, just _please_ touch me!" I gave him my best puppy dog eyes, pouting slightly. 

"The more you whine, the longer I'm going to make you wait for it," Spencer replied, grinning at me as he started pressing kisses down my chest and stomach until he settled between my legs, looking up at me through his lashes as he raised his eyebrows slightly. I had to bite my lip to make sure I kept my mouth shut, especially at the sight of him there. "Good girl," he smirked at me, kissing the inside of my thigh. 

He hooked his finger over the top of my thong, sliding it down my legs and throwing it on the floor. My hands rested on the top of his head, pushing his hair back out of his face as he ran his tongue up my heat, circling around my clit. I moved my hips, trying to get more friction but his fingers dug into my thighs, holding me in place. Tugging on his hair, I let out a moan as he worked me with his tongue. My stomach tightened and I sighed with pleasure as he pushed a finger inside me and began pumping fast before slipping another one in too. His slender fingers curling up to hit my sensitive spot as he plunged deeper. He kept going, pinning my hips down as I got closer and closer until I was a shaking mess beneath him.

Spencer flipped me over onto my stomach, his knee pushing my legs apart. Behind me, I could hear him opening a condom and slipping it on before lining himself up at my entrance. He leant his full weight over me and grabbed a fistful of hair. 

"Are you sure?" He murmured in my ear, tugging on my hair. 

"Please," I begged, my voice heavy with desperation, it was all the encouragement he needed as he thrusted inside of me. My hands gripped onto my sheets, Spencer’s tight grip on my hair thankfully lifting my head up just enough to breathe. He pulled out of me slowly before pushing into me even further, filling me up even more than before. I knew he would be big but _my god_ he felt so good inside of me. I whimpered softly as he built up his speed, his free hand firmly pressing down on my back. I could feel myself quickly becoming over stimulated as I neared my climax again, crying out as he ruthlessly pounded into me still, not letting me come down properly before I came again. His thrusts finally became faster and sloppier and he let go of my hair, bracing his hands against the mattress as I felt him twitch inside of me before pulling out and collapsing onto the bed next to me. 

I felt him shuffling around, pulling his boxers back on before he rolled me over to face him, my body too weak to do it myself. 

"Here, put these on," he mumbled, helping me put on a pair of his boxers and a shirt. "You okay?" 

"That was _amazing_ ," I breathed, giggling slightly as I found some strength to snuggle into him. He pressed a kiss to my forehead as he propped himself up on one arm, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear with his free hand. 

"Tell me about it," he chuckled as his hand slipped under my shirt, his soft hands trailing over the skin on my stomach. I blinked up at him, smiling at his beautiful face. "Are you staying the night? I don't think I can say goodbye to you again just yet."

"Of course, I don't think you have to worry about that." I rolled over to face him, my hands resting on his chest as I kissed him. "Your biggest problem is going to be getting rid of me now, I'm not going anywhere."

"Good, I don't want you to." 

~

"How the hell am I supposed to pretend like I'm not attracted to you all day when you look like that!" I exasperated, taking in the sight of Spencer as I climbed in the car. He was a light blue shirt, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and a navy waist coat with a matching tie. We'd decided against telling people about us, mainly because 'us' was just sex, given the fact that having a relationship with someone you work with was not allowed and we didn't want to ruin our friendship. I swallowed hard; this was going to be the longest day of my life.

"Keep your hands to yourself Dr Parker, _friends_ don't grope each other on their way to work," he smirked. I watched his muscles flex under his tight shirt as he gripped the wheel, turning out of my street. 

"No, but friends with benefits do," I moaned, fluttering my eyes at him as I ran a finger up his leg. 

"Behave yourself, _I mean it_." His tone wasn't helping as the butterflies in my stomach increased.

"Fine," I grumbled, sulking down into my chair as I removed my hand off his leg. 

As soon as I stepped through the doors into work, Garcia pulled me into a tight hug as she sobbed softly onto my shoulder.

"Hey Pen, it's alright." I awkwardly hugged her back, giving Spencer a look to help me but he just walked off towards his desk, shrugging and laughing at me. 

"I'm sorry, I'm such a mess it should be _me_ comforting _you_!" She pulled away wiping her face. "How are you? Are you doing okay? Can I do anything? Are you sure you're okay to be at work?"

"Pen, I'm fine I promise. Save all your fussing for Kit, apparently he needs it more than me!" I giggled, trying to distract her. Clearly it worked as she smiled at me sheepishly, a blush making its way up her cheeks. 

"Baby girl, give her some space, she can't breathe with you pouncing on her like that," Derek mumbled, wrapping an arm around Garcia's shoulders. "Hope you're doing okay though, Princess." He nodded at me, smiling softly before dragging her away from me.

"Good to have you back, kiddo," Rossi muttered as he walked past me, squeezing my shoulder gently."

"Thank you," I sighed, taking a shaky breath as I headed over towards my desk. 

"We missed you while you were gone," Emily announced, leaning next to me. 

"Let us know if we can do anything Maddie," JJ agreed, nodding as she joined Emily at my desk. 

"Really guys, I'm okay. Thank you though," I smiled, leaning back in my chair as I twirled a pen around my fingers nervously. The huge pile of paperwork on my desk had never been so appealing as I got stuck in, a good distraction from all the fussing.

Even my paperwork wasn't enough to distract me from Spencer though. He was stood in the kitchen area, talking to Derek about something with excessive hand gestures. His tight trousers clinging to him in all the right places. I wasn't usually a fan of guns, but the sight of his gun sat in his holster, pressed against his stomach was _so hot_ , I loved it so much. 

"Enjoying the view Dr Parker?" Spencer muttered so only I could hear as he sat back down at his desk. I licked my lips, nodding at him eagerly. "If you're so intent on no one finding out about us you better stop looking at me like that."

"Like what?" I asked innocently, looking him up and down. 

"Like you want to rip my clothes off." He folded his arms across his chest, leaning backwards slightly in his chair. 

"I can't help it, _look at you._ " My mouth was watering at the sight of him. 

"Dr Parker," he clicked his tongue at me, his face hardening. "Just think of all the things I'm going to do to you when we get home. Trying to touch me in the car, turning me on at work and blatantly flirting with me in front of everyone." He shook his head slightly as he chuckled softly. "I told you to behave and yet here we are, think of the punishments you'll be getting for disobeying me so much."

"Stop it," I hissed. My plan to turn him on at work was clearly backfiring as I was sat there, pressing my legs together, heat rising to my cheeks at the sound of his words. 

"Not so clever now, are you pretty girl?" He said in a low voice. "Maybe you'll think twice next time you try and challenge me."

" _Enough_ ," I spat. He raised his eyebrows at my words, as if to ask if that was me challenging him again. I just glared at him as he smirked right back. He mouthed the word ' _behave_ ' before pointing a finger to my pile of work. I groaned quietly, burying my face in my arms on my desk. This was absolute _torture_.


	13. Chapter 13

"Okay, it's home time. Let's go," I announced to Spencer the second it turned 5pm. I shoved all my belongings into my bag and stood up, leaning over Spencer's desk. 

"I'm not done yet, you'll have to wait a bit longer," Spencer replied, not even looking up from his work. I gaped at him.

"Nuh huh, I'm not staying here any longer than I have too, I'm _tired_ and _hungry,_ " I whined, and he sighed, putting his pen down on the table as he looked up at me with raised brows. "Fine, I'll go ask Emily for a lift."

"No, you won't. Sit down and wait for me to finish." He returned his attention back to his work and I slumped back in my chair, pulling out a book to read. 

"Stop treating me like a child," I mumbled, dramatically opening my book with a loud sigh.

"Stop _acting_ like a child." His tone told me not to argue with him any further. 

Almost an hour later Spencer tapped me on my shoulder, making me jump as he pulled me away from my book. 

"I'm done, let's go." I just nodded, putting my book back in my bag as I followed him back out to the car park. "You're awfully quiet, Dr Parker," he noted as he started driving. When I didn't reply he looked at me properly, placing a gentle hand on my leg. "You okay?"

"I'm hungry," I snapped. And _horny_ , but I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of knowing that he was all I'd thought about today.

"You're always hungry." I glared at him, shifting my weight slightly so I was turned away from him. "And you wonder why I treat you like a child."

"You're boring me Dr Reid," I mumbled, rolling my eyes. Pissed off was an understatement for how I felt, the fact Spencer had made me wait even longer to go home when he looked that good in his suit and now was acting like it was nothing, especially with the way he was moving his hands as he read over his work. I swear he did on purpose most of the time, just to wind me up. He pulled up outside my apartment and I frowned, finally turning to look at him. "Why are we outside my apartment?"

"Because you live here?" He asked, frowning at me right back though I could see a smile playing on his lips. 

" _Smartass_ ," I playfully hit him on the arm and unbuckled my seatbelt. "I _meant_ , why are we at my apartment and not yours?"

"Because you said you were tired and hungry, I thought that was you hinting that you didn't want to stay tonight, especially with everything you've had going on I figured you might want some time alone," he replied, linking his hands together as his thumbs twitched nervously. 

"Oh Spence, you daft bastard!" I laughed, placing one hand on my chest while I gripped his hand with my other one. "I'm sorry, that wasn't what I was doing at all! The last thing I want is to be alone I swear," I explained to him, my heart melting at how sweet he was. 

"So, you want me to stay?" He asked sheepishly.

"Yes, obviously!" I started climbing out of his car. "Turn your engine off and get your arse inside _now_. I'm fed up with having to look at you in that suit all day and not being able to do anything about it." He grinned at me, eagerly following me up into my apartment. 

Spencer sat down on my sofa, grabbing my hand as he pulled me on top of him, so I was straddling his lap, his hands resting on my hips. His eyes fluttered shut as I ran my hands through his hair, pushing it up out of his face causing him to smile softly. He looked so happy like that; it made my heart swell. 

"You're cute," I whispered, leaning in as I pressed a soft kiss to his lips. He just hummed in response, gripping my hips tightly as he kissed me back. I opened my mouth, grazing my tongue of his bottom lip as I deepened the kiss as I started grinding my hips against him. he pulled away from me ever so slightly, squeezing my hips hard enough to bruise. 

"Dr Parker," he warned as I made my way down his neck with my mouth, my hands moving to his tie as I tried to undo it. "I don't think so, I still need to teach you a lesson about your bad behaviour this morning."

"You made me sit and wait for an extra hour at work!" He looked at me sternly, a lazy smile playing on his lips as he dug his fingers into skin even harder. "Maybe _I_ should teach _you_ a lesson about what happens when you make me wait." I yanked on his tie, causing him to lean forwards and gripped his chin tightly, tilting his head up to look at me. His eyes darkened and he licked his lips, moving his hands round to cup my ass as he slid me forwards, so I was pressed against his hardness. 

"What kind of punishment are you thinking?" He swallowed hard, one of his hands lightly trailing up my back as I rolled my hips into him. 

"Hmm." I pressed a finger to my chin, pretending to think really hard about it. "You know what? I'm going to take a shower while I think about it and you can sit right there and wait for _me_."

He sat there glaring at me as I sauntered off to the bathroom, laughing over my shoulder at him. After quickly showering, I pulled on a sheer purple lace thong and matching bra and headed back out to the living room to find Spencer sat where I left him, his head buried in a book. _Cheeky bastard_ , I'd barely been gone 5 minutes.

I snapped the book shut, causing him to look up at me as I leant over him, his eyes raking over my body. "Purple's your favourite colour, right?" He nodded, swallowing hard before leaning back on the sofa with his arms behind his head, smirking up at me. 

"Did you have enough time to think about this punishment of mine then, _Doctor_?" 

"I did," I replied as I straddled his lap again. His hands immediately moved to grab my ass, but I caught his wrists before he had chance, holding them up between us both. "You can't touch unless I say you can." I squeezed his wrists tightly before placing them on my hips.

"I don't like this game anymore," he grumbled, looking me up and down again.

"You're not supposed to." I ran my hands through his hair, pushing his head backwards as I kissed him gently. "I have some questions for you, _Doctor Reid,_ " I smirked down at him, giving his hair a tug before I started undoing the buttons of his shirt. "I know this is just sex between us but, are you sleeping with anyone else?"

"No," he whispered quietly as I pressed a kiss to his bare chest, continuing to make my way down his shirt. 

"Do you plan on sleeping with anyone else?"

"No." 

"Good. Me neither." He squeezed my hips hard and I gave him a warning stare as I slipped his shirt off his shoulders. "I'm clean and on the pill, I don't really like condoms."

"I'm clean too and I don't like condoms either," he said quickly, licking his lips. 

"Good," I grinned at him, my hands reached around my back and I unclipped my bra, discarding it to the side. One of his hands moved to my breast, cupping it as he ran a thumb over my nipple, his mouth reconnected with mine. The way he was touching me felt so good that it took me a few seconds to realise he was doing exactly what I had told him not to do. 

"I don't think so," I smirked at him, pushing him off me as I wrapped a hand around his throat. He raised his eyebrows at me, knowing I'd almost let him carry on, but I just pressed harder around his neck before reaching down for his belt. I undid his trousers, pulling them down while I climbed off his knee, looking up at him as I dragged my tongue up the length of his cock and licked up the pre-cum as I circled my tongue around his tip. I dipped my head, taking as much of him as I could in my mouth, not bothering to stop him as his hands moved to my head, getting tangled in my hair. The sound of my name on his lips as he tipped his head backwards sent tingles down my spine, giving me all the encouragement, I needed to build up my speed. He didn't let me be in control for long before he grabbed the back of my head, pulling me back up on top of him.

"You're adorable when you think you're in charge," he whispered, pushing my thong to the side. He smirked at the wetness he found there already, I just slid myself onto him, moaning softly at the way he filled me up. My hips shifted forwards as I began to ride him though Spencer's hands remained on my hips, controlling my pace. I dug my nails into his shoulders, dragging my fingers down his chest as he moved a hand to where we joined, his fingers rubbing small circles on my clit. 

"Oh god Spence, please don't stop," I cried out, sighing into him as he pressed his forehead against mine. 

"Funny how quick you've started begging me for the thing you've stopped me doing all night," he smirked at me, moving my hips at an agonisingly slow pace before pounding into me ruthlessly as he held me in place. I couldn't even form a coherent sentence to reply to him as he pushed me over the edge, my legs trembling slightly as I came down from my orgasm. Spencer thrusted into me a few more times before he emptied himself inside of me, breathing heavily as he came down from his own orgasm. "How about another shower, but I'll join you this time?" He murmured, pressing soft kisses up my neck and across my cheeks. 

"And then can we order pizza?" I asked, giggling as I tried to dodge the kisses he pressed to my mouth. 

"Of course, anything you want Maddie," he responded, picking me up as he carried me to the bathroom. 

~

"Parker, can you come see me in your office please?" Hotch asked as he walked past where I was sat on the edge of Spence's desk the next day at work. 

"Yeah sure," I replied, smiling politely at him. I glanced towards Spencer with a confused look, but he just shrugged his shoulders at me, leaning backwards on his chair with his hands behind his head. Rolling my eyes, I put my mug of coffee down and hurried after Hocth up the stairs to his office. 

"Sorry, I meant to catch you yesterday, but I was so busy I didn't have chance," he explained as I sat in the chair across from him.

"Oh, that's okay," I grinned at him, trying to hide how anxious I was, trying to rack my brain for what this conversation could possibly be about. 

"I just wanted to say I'm so sorry for your loss, I know how hard it must be for you." He looked at me pitifully. "Let me know if there's anything I can do."

"Thank you," I replied quietly, not really knowing where to look. This wasn't where I thought this was going.

"As glad as I am to have you back, you're more than welcome to take more time off if you need to. It's not a problem."

"Honestly, it's fine. I'm fine. I like being at work, keeps me distracted, you know?" I stumbled over my words, my voice cracking slightly as I tried to hold back my tears. 

"I'm here for you if you want to talk, Maddie. We all are and we all probably understand what you're going through more thank you could ever know." I wiped the tears from my cheeks as I hugged my knees up to my chest. "Have you at least talking to Reid about this? Or Garcia?" 

"I kind of talked to Spencer about it when we were in England but I dunno, think it's just as hard for him to talk about it. My dad absolutely adored him," I chuckled, shaking my head as Hotch grinned at me.

"Speaking of Dr Reid," Hotch started, clearing his throat. "Do the three of us need to have a chat?" He looked so uncomfortable it was almost funny.

"About what?" I frowned innocently at him, thoroughly grateful that I was the manipulative bitch I was because it meant I could lie effortlessly to him.

"About the er- _nature_ of your relationship," he replied, linking his hands together as he rested them on his table in front of him. 

I let out a loud laugh. "No, we're just friends I swear," I laughed again. "Spence and me? No way!"

"Okay, good because I would hate to have to let one of you go for something as silly as fraternisation." He stood up with a nod and walked to the door, holding it open for me.

"Me and Spence," I chuckled, shaking my head as I left his office. "Who knew you had such a good sense of humour Hotch!" I giggled, placing my hand on his shoulder with a grin as I stalked off back to my desk.


	14. Chapter 14

It had been just over a month since my dad had died and I'd got back to America, Spencer and I had spent almost every night together. I could feel myself catching feelings for him, no matter how much I told myself it was his idea for it to be 'just sex' between us, nothing more. As much as I hated to admit it, he was right, a relationship wouldn't work, and I was happy with the time I got to spend with him the way things were anyway. I groaned at the sound of Spencer's alarm waking me up, mumbling for him to turn it off in a not so polite way. 

"Any need for such vulgar language this early in the morning?" Spencer asked, climbing out of the bed next to me. I just grumbled another string of obscenities at him, pulling the duvet above my head as he turned the light on. "You have such a foul mouth," he chuckled. 

"5 more minutes," I pleaded, dozing back off to sleep.

"You say that every morning and then complain when you're rushing around because you overslept." I couldn't even argue with him because it was true. 

"Okay, okay fine! I'm up!" I grumbled, heading straight to the kitchen to pour myself a huge cup of coffee, gulping it down quickly. Spencer walked in wearing only his boxers, a shirt and his glasses and made himself a coffee before turning and looking at me uncomfortably. "What?" I asked, not liking his edginess. 

"I don't think we should sleep over at each other's places anymore," he explained, avoiding eye contact with me. 

"Uh, why?" I replied, trying to hide the devastation in my voice. 

"Well, this is just sex, right?"

"Yeah..." I started anxiously chewing on the inside of my cheek.

"If this is going to work, we need to make sure we don't complicate things." He finally looked me in the eye, though I couldn't read his face at all. 

"Are you serious?" He just nodded in response. "But you're my best friend, we'd be having sleepovers with each other all time even if we _weren't_ having sex." 

"I don't want to blur the lines; we need to keep things nice and clear between us." He started twitching his thumbs nervously again, I was so close to slapping him across the face.

"Maybe you should have thought about that before you came to fucking England with me!" I spat. 

"You're mad at me? I thought this was what you wanted!" He exclaimed. His voice started getting higher pitched as he tried to stop himself shouting while he waved his hands frantically I exasperation. 

"It is." I willed my face into a cold, emotionless stare as I forced myself to turn off my emotions. If this is how he wanted to be, I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of knowing I was upset. "You're right, glad we could clear things up _Spencer_." I turned on my heel, placing my mug on the side before stalking off back to my bedroom. 

"Maddie..." He called after me, but I just ignored him. 

Neither of us said a word to each other all morning, it was the most uncomfortable car journey of my life. Spencer kept glancing sideways at me, opening his mouth as if he was going to say something but deciding against it. I was grateful to be the one driving so I could have something other than how angry I was to focus on. I didn't wait for him as I walked into work, taking the stairs so I didn't have to share a lift with him. 

"How long do you plan on ignoring me for?" Spencer asked me after an hour of being sat at our desks. 

"I'm not ignoring you." I turned to look at him, smiling innocently. He was smart enough to look slightly intimidated by my stare. "I just wouldn't want to _complicate_ things by talking to you too much."

"You know that's not what I meant," he hissed quietly.

"I mean, I thought a so called 'genius' would be able to handle the situation despite it being _so very confusing_ but clearly I was wrong. Obviously too much, even for you, Dr Reid," I retorted, sarcasm lacing my words. 

Spencer stood up, storming off to the kitchen where Derek was stood. Part of me wondered if I was taking it too far by being this petty but I had settled into a cold, icy rage, completely shut off from any reasonable thoughts to stop myself. Garcia walked through the bullpen, waving a case file in the air as she called us all into the conference room.

"Okay so," Garcia started as I sat down in a chair between Prentiss and Morgan. "Four women have been brutally raped murdered in Washington, DC. Here is our latest victim, Talia Wright, where she was found in her own home. That poor, poor lady."

"Talk about overkill," I murmured as I took in the sight of the images that flashed upon the screen.

"We're only about an hour’s drive away from them so we'll look at this in more detail once we get there and have chance to speak to their detectives." Hotch announced, picking up a huge pile of paperwork. We all stood up and headed down to the SUV's, ready for the long drive. 

~

I'd purposely avoided being stuck in a car with Spencer again, climbing in with Garcia, Emily and JJ instead. Whether they had picked up that something was off or not, none of them asked me about Spencer's horrible mood. 

"Hotch! Thank you for coming, it's nice to see you again," a bald man who I presumed was the Chief of Police exclaimed, shaking Hotch's hand with a big grin. 

"Hi Sean, it's good to be back." Hotch was grinning at the man, "shall we get started?"

"Sure, it's all set up in the usual room for you." Hotch nodded, leading us all in the right direction. Everyone was familiar with the team; I suppose that was natural seeing how close the station was too Quantico. Spencer hung back, keeping his head down as everyone greeted one another, only offering small awkward smiles if anyone spoke to him. "You're new," Sean said, walking next to me.

"Dr Maddie Parker, I only joined the team about 6 months ago." I smiled brightly at him, holding out a hand which he eagerly shook.

"Nice accent," he smirked at me. 

"Nice hair," I retorted. Sean burst out laughing, causing the rest of the team to turn back and look at us. Spencer was too busy fiddling with a tag on his bag to even notice what was going on around him. It was so strange to see him so nervous and uncomfortable considering how confident he was around the team usually. 

"Oh, I like you!" He grinned at me. "Detective Pearce, this is SSA Dr Maddie Parker, she's with the BAU, they're here to help with your case." he shouted across the bullpen to a young man who joined us. "I think you two are really going to hit it off," he whispered to me before walking off to his office. 

"Pleasure to meet you," Harry smiled at me. 

"You're British too?" I asked, grinning at the handsome boy. 

"God, it's been a while since I heard someone else with a Yorkshire accent, it's like being back home! Where abouts are you from?" 

"Leeds, you?"

"Sheffield. Small world," he mused, grinning brightly at me as we headed into the room, joining the rest of the team. 

"It is indeed," I replied, sitting next to him at the table.

**~SPENCER~**

Maddie tipped her head back as she laughed hysterically at something Detective Pearce was saying as he poured her a coffee, infuriating Spencer even further. He'd met Pearce a few times over the last couple of years and it was fair to say he wasn't his biggest fan, and now that he was blatantly flirting with Maddie, he hated him. Spencer cursed himself for choosing today of all days to wimp out of telling her how he really felt. He'd hoped Maddie felt the same way and would've fought him more on it, so he didn't look so pathetic for being worried about her leaving him, but she was either too stubborn to admit it or she genuinely didn't care as much as he thought about him.

"No offence but you look way too young to be a doctor. I mean, so does Reid but he's a freaky genius with his eidetic memory or whatever." Spencer heard Pearce ask Maddie as they re-entered the room they'd been working from. He had his back to them, focusing on putting as much detail into the geographical profile as he could so he could avoid talking to anyone. He really didn't feel comfortable around these people, they made him nervous because they all seemed to take shots at his intelligence, which Spencer usually missed until Derek explained it to him.

"Yeah, I went to uni when I was 16, did my first two bachelors at the same. And my Ph.D. is in Maths not medicine like you're probably thinking so it only took me 2 years to complete which I did whilst I was working at Scotland Yard," Maddie explained with a shrug, as if it wasn't impressive at all.

"Fucking hell," Pearce replied, gaping at her admirably. "So, you're a freaky genius too?"

"There's nothing freaky about being smart, don't be fucking rude." Maddie rolled her eyes at him, causing Spencer to smile to himself a little. 

"Can you blame me?" 

"Is your dick really that small that you feel the need to insult me about it?" Maddie glared at him. 

"Piss off, I do _not_ have a small penis!" He protested, getting very defensive. 

"Your reaction says otherwise," she raised her eyebrows in a pointed look. Harry just glared at her, shaking his head as Maddie giggled, holding up two fingers extremely close together in a size comparison. 

"Enough you two, geez!" Rossi groaned, pulling a disgusted look. "No one cares about who's dick is bigger than who's."

"That wasn't even the argument, but mine is definitely bigger," Maddie replied, folding her arms across her chest. 

"You don't even have one," Rossi said. 

"Yes, I do. It's nine inches and bright pink." Maddie grinned at Rossi's horrified expression. "Has an amazing vibrate setting too." Pearce was laughing along, looking at her with the same loved up expression Spencer knew he usually wore when he was with her.

"I don't even want to know," Rossi mumbled before walking out the room, Maddie and Harry still giggling with each other. 

Garcia stormed in, mumbling to herself as she opened up her laptop again and started typing away. Her head snapped up as she looked around the room. 

"Where is everyone?" She asked, frowning.

"Hotch and Prentiss are with the M.E still, JJ and Morgan are on their way back from the victim’s homes," Spencer replied without turning around, still studying the case on the boards.

"What's wrong?" Maddie asked. 

"I found him; I've found the unsub. His name is Charlie Moore, he has the longest list of childhood trauma and psychiatric disorders longer I have ever seen! I'm sending you his home address now, I'll call Hotch and everyone, get them to meet you there."

"Garcia, you're a genius!" Maddie exclaimed, kissing her on the cheek dramatically before following Reid and Pearce out of the room, into one of the squad cars. 


	15. Chapter 15

**~ Maddie ~**

"Charlie Moore, this is the FBI! Drop your weapon and turn around with your hands up!" Spencer shouted for behind me. 

I opened the gate, slowly making my way down the path up to where he was stood outside his door. Charlie turned around, aiming his gun right at me. 

"Come any closer and I'll shoot!" He spat at me, his face and eyes full of rage despite how bad his hands were shaking. 

"Okay, okay," I lowered my gun to the ground, putting my hands up in the air. "Charlie, you don't need to do this, it's not going to fix things. We are here to help you, I promise." I took a step closer to him and he lowered his hands slightly. 

Someone shouted my name as more sirens approached us and I stupidly turned around to look who it was as Morgan and Hotch leaped out of their cars, guns aimed high. In the split second that I looked away, Charlie lunged forwards and spun me round as he wrapped an arm around my neck, pressing his gun into the side of my head. 

"Really?" I muttered under my breath, rolling my eyes. "Why is it always me?"

"Parker..." Hotch warned with a disappointed look as he slowly crept forwards, so he was stood next to Spencer and Harry. 

"Charlie, what happened to you wasn't your fault. None of this was but you just need to let Agent Parker go," Spencer said softly. "Please, we can help you if you just let her go. No one else needs to get hurt."

"No, you can't!" He shouted back and I just sighed, getting fed up with being held with a gun against my head.

"Okay, I'm bored now," I announced, causing Charlie to turn his attention back to me. I grabbed hold of his wrist that was holding his gun with enough force to make him lose his grip of it and I grabbed it with my free hand, smashing it into the side of his head. He cried out in pain, removing his arm from around my neck as he staggered backwards. I pulled his arms behind his back, putting him into handcuffs before dragging him to one of the cop cars that had pulled up. Harry gaped at me and the rest of my team just shook their heads, muttering snarky comments under their breaths.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Spencer hissed, following me closely as I started to take my vest off. I hadn't done it purposely to wind him up, but I was glad it had bothered him so much.

"My arms had started falling asleep and you guys were taking too long," I shrugged.

"He had a _gun_ pressed into the side of your head, Maddie! Have you completely lost your mind?" 

"He wasn't actually going to shoot me," I grumbled. 

"You didn't know that!" I just rolled my eyes and walked away, I didn't feel like standing there and letting him shout at me.

~

I was grabbing the last of my things from the station, ready to head back with the rest of the team when Harry pulled me to the side.

"You're leaving already?" He asked, leaning against the door frame. 

"Yeah, the case is over now. We've done all the hard work, so you don't really need us anymore," I grinned at him brightly.

"I didn't mean what I said earlier about you are being a freaky genius." He looked at his feet awkwardly before looking back up at me. "You just seem way too good to be true."

"Huh?"

"For starters, I think you might be the most beautiful person I have ever laid my eyes on." It was my turn to look at the ground as I tried to hide the blush creeping up my cheeks. "And you're smart, not to mention absolutely _hilarious_ and you have so much confidence, it's unbelievable. I mean, the way you were with that unsub today... Do you know how hot that was?"

"Um..." I chuckled awkwardly, not really sure how to reply to that.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is do you maybe wanna go out for a drink sometime?"

"Yeah, sure. You have my number, text me when you're free and we can sort it out." His face lit up with a bright smile before he walked off back to his office. 

I turned around and picked up my bag, eager to get home, when I noticed Spencer stood alone in the corner of the room. I smiled to myself, knowing full well that he had heard everything. Part of me felt slightly guilty but I desperately wanted him to feel as shit as he had made me feel that morning.

"I hope those lines are clear enough for you now," I sneered, storming past him. 

He grabbed my arm, pulling me back as he forced me to face him. Spencer's hand wrapped around my throat as he slammed me against the wall, crashing his mouth against mine. I whimpered softly as he squeezed tightly, opening my mouth to deepen the kiss. His hot breath tickled my cheeks as he pulled away slightly, suddenly remembering where we were.

"You are _mine_ and no one else's. Do you understand?" I nodded eagerly, completely forgetting that I was supposed to be angry with him. "Fuck not complicating things, I want to be with you."

"About fucking time, Dr Reid." I smiled as he squeezed my throat tighter. "It really took me flirting with someone else to make you realise that?"

"Fucking brat. Maybe I should punish you again for your appalling behaviour today."

"What are you gonna do, tie me up and spank me?" I croaked out cockily despite my voice barely being a whisper from how hard he was squeezing my neck.

"Shut up and get in the car," he ordered, a wicked smirk plastered across his face.

"I want to be with you too, Spence," I whispered before shoving free of his grip, stalking past him out of the room.

Emily was stood leaning against the car waiting for me when I stepped out of the station, texting on her phone. She smiled as she looked up and saw me.

"Hotch and Morgan already left with JJ and Garcia, they didn't want to wait. Rossi's driving us, where's Spencer?" She asked, opening the car door for me. 

"How would I know, he's barely spoken to me today," I replied, climbing into the back, ignoring the frown on Emily's face. 

"Okay... I'll text him and tell him to hurry up otherwise we're leaving without him."

5 minutes later, Spencer was sliding into the back of the car next to me, Emily slamming her door shut as she got in the front. No one was saying anything, I couldn't even bring myself to look at Spencer again, was that little outburst his way of trying to tell me he wanted more than just sex? My heart was still racing as I thought of how good his hands felt wrapped around my throat. I was hoping that Rossi and Emily would interpret the silence as awkward because we weren't speaking instead of the sexual tension that I was feeling. I absentmindedly ran my fingers across my neck, tracing over where Spencer's hands had just been when my phone buzzed, pulling me away from my thoughts. I cleared my throat as I read the text from Spencer.

_S: Next time I choke you, I'll make sure to leave some marks to help you remember it._

I smirked as I typed out my reply. 

_R: You promise?_

_S: You're such a dirty little slut, Dr Parker._

I fidgeted in my seat, looking out the window to hide the heat rising to my cheeks.

_R: Yeah, but I'm YOUR dirty little slut, Dr Reid._

_S: I am going to fuck you so hard tonight._

_R: Good._

"Who the hell is texting you so much?" Emily asked, turning around in her seat to look at me. My head snapped up, pulling me away from my dirty thoughts of Spencer.

"No one," I mumbled, shoving my phone in my pocket. She was glaring at me suspiciously, knowing that I was straight up lying to her, but she knew better than to question me about it in a car full of people. 

The journey back to Spencer's apartment was agonisingly slow, we seemed to get stuck in every single bit of traffic as we drove through town. Spencer just sat there, laughing softly at my road rage.

"I need to know how much you can take," Spencer mumbled between kisses as he slammed his door behind us.

"Okay," I breathed as moved his mouth down my neck, pushing be backwards towards his bedroom.

"You're obviously okay with choking, what about blindfolds? Or gags?" I nodded, moaning softly as he pulled my top off over my head. His hand gripped into my cheeks, forcing my head to look up at him as his hazel eyes burned into mine, warning me not to challenge him. "Use your words, _Doctor_."

"Yes," I replied breathlessly. Gone was that quiet awkward boy from earlier today, he was like a completely different person.

"To which?"

"All of them." He smirked at me, letting go of my face roughly as he started undressing himself, those long fingers of his working to undo the buttons on his shirt.

"Restraints?"

"Yes, _please_." I stepped out of my trousers, kicking them to the side and I licked my lips while I watched his hands move to his belt as he did the same. 

"Impact play?"

"Yeah, all fine. Do you have a safe word?" I was getting impatient now. Spencer took a step closer, so he was towering over me. 

"I usually use colours. Red to stop completely, amber if you want to slow down and green to keep going. Is that okay?" He ran a gentle finger across the top of my bra, and I nodded eagerly in response. He gave me a pointed look.

"Yes," I sighed, rolling my eyes.

"I won't do anything we haven't talked about and I won't do anything that I wouldn't be comfortable with if you did it to me. Are you ready?" 

"Yeah," I grinned up at him as he pressed a soft kiss to my lips. 

"Take your underwear off and kneel on the bed," he ordered before turning his back to me and started rummaging around in his wardrobe for something. 

I did as I was told, sitting myself on the edge of his bed. Spencer stood in front of me with a deep purple rope in his hands. I sat up straighter, grinning as I held out my wrists for him. 

"I told you to kneel," he stared at me. "So, _kneel_."

I climbed onto his bed, facing the headboard. The mattress shifted behind me and Spencer began wrapping the rope around my wrist. It was stiff - like it was brand new. I smiled at the thought that Spencer had gone out and bought it specifically for me.

"Is that too tight?" He murmured in my ear, moving my hair over my shoulder as he traced a finger down the length of my spine.

"No, it's fine." Even if it was too tight, I wouldn't have told him. My arms were bound together so I could do little more than lift them slightly. I waited patiently to see what he would do next, deciding to keep my mouth shut instead of being a complete brat for once in my life. 

He rested his hand on my shoulder and pushed me gently. I lost my balance completely and went face first straight into the pillows. I manage to arrange myself so I could still breathe, turning my head to the side. 

Spencer was running his finger up the inside of my thigh. "You're so beautiful," he murmured, almost to himself. There was a slight pause as he removed his hand from me, only to bring it down hard on my ass cheek. I bit my lip, hiding my grin at the stinging sensation it left as his hand slammed against me again. A moment later I felt him pressing against me, sliding in easily until he was buried to the hilt. I groaned into the pillow at how good he felt inside me - he always did. He pulled out slowly before pushing into me again, ever deeper this time, slowly building up his speed. 

Every little sensation, from the bruising grip he had on my hips to the soft brush of the pillowcase on my cheek, was making my skin tingle all over. Spencer groaned softly, hitting a deep spot inside me that made me shudder and I felt the warmth pleasure building up inside of me. My arms and shoulders were starting to hurt, in a dull satisfying ache. It felt _good_. I made a soft, muffled noise, my legs shaking slightly as I reached my climax. Tears started to prickle my eyes at how quickly I was becoming overstimulated as Spencer continued to ruthlessly pound into me. I soon felt him swell inside of me, his hips finally stilling their incessant movements. 

He was breathing heavily as he pulled out of me. "Don't move," he mumbled, climbing off the bed. I almost laughed at the fact that he thought I would be able to stand myself up from this position without his help. I felt him drag a damp cloth up between my legs, cleaning up his mess before his hands worked to quickly undo the rope on my wrists. I rolled over onto my back, my arms very heavy and numb at my sides and I felt completely blissed out - almost overwhelmed, like I might laugh or cry. Spencer pulled one of his t shirts over my head before picking up each of my hands, rubbing aloe vera gel over the red marks the ropes had left. 

"I meant what I said earlier, I want to be with you," he started. "Like properly be with you. I want to take you out and show you off to the world, let everyone know that you're mine."

I looked up at him, smiling brightly at him. "I want that too," I whispered in response. "Well, everyone except the team."

"Right," he grinned, kissing the top of my head as he draped his arm over my shoulders.

"Ooo does that mean you're my boyfriend now, Dr Reid!" I giggled, resting my head on his chest. 

"I guess it does, Dr Parker."


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> HI HI girlypops, so I've made a few changes to this story: Riley is now called 'Maddie' and is half Greek, her brother Cody is now also called George. Sorry for the slow updates as well, I'm back working in the hospital again n I've just done like 2 weeks of nights and it completely wiped me out! Anyway, enjoy my luvs, pls don't forget to comment n give kudos and share xxxx

I stretched out my legs, titling my head back as I soaked in the hot Texas sun, grateful to finally get some colour back on my skin. Emily, Rossi and I were lounging on some chairs outside, taking a small break from the case while Spencer and Morgan went over the crime scenes and Hotch and JJ talked to the M.E.

"I love the sun but this heat is just taking the piss now, it's suffocating," I groaned, wiping the sweat off my forehead with the back of my hand. Rossi grunted in agreement, the heat making him even grumpier than usual. I had a khaki green sleeveless top on in a poor attempt to keep cool, it probably wasn't helping that I still had my boots on too. 

Emily was sat next to me, reading a book under some shade. She had on her red vest which she always looked so good in. If it wasn't for the 10 year age gap _or_ that fact that I'm with Spencer, I definitely would have gone for her. My phone buzzed, distracting me from my completely inappropriate thoughts of Emily and I pulled it out, a text from Spencer flashing across the screen.

_S: We're heading back now, I do hope you're doing something worth while and not still sat on your arse sunbathing._

I grinned at my phone, quickly typing out my reply. 

_M: I think you'll find sunbathing is extremely hard work and I'm doing an excellent job at it._

_S: Yeah, I'm sure. How typical of you, leaving all the important work for me to do._

_M: Isn't that all you're good for anyway?_

"Maddie?" Emily shouted, causing me to jump slightly as she pulled my attention back away from my phone.

"Huh?" I frowned, I hadn't even realised anyone was speaking to me.

"I _said_ , do you want a cold drink? I'm heading to the vending machine." Emily had her arms folded across her chest. A sly smirk making its way across her face as she raised her eyebrows at me.

"Oh, yeah please, thank you!" I replied, smiling innocently. I looked down at my phone again reading a very dirty message from Spencer. Pressing my lips together to hide my smile, I placed my phone upside down on the table. Emily returned back to us outside, placing an ice cold can in front of me.

" _Efharisto_ ," I smiled up at her again, ignoring the suspicious looks she kept flashing me. I shoved my phone back in my pocket, I didn't think she would check it but I wasn't taking any chances.

"Why do you look so suspicious? What are you hiding on there?" She murmured, staring me down. I just shrugged, taking a sip from my drink.

"What's going on?" Derek asked, coming up behind me, Spencer following closely. Spencer flashed me a cheeky grin, putting on his sunglasses as he flopped into the chair next to me.

"Maddie's hiding something, she's been glued to her phone for the last few hours texting god know's who," she raised her eyebrows in question at me again.

"That's so weird, I literally just said the same thing to Spencer in the car!" Morgan exclaimed. He frowned, looking between the two of us until Emily's phone rang, dragging her away from where we were sat to answer it. 

I looked at Spencer, raising my eyebrows as I pulled my hair up into a neat ponytail. "Who _are_ you texting all the time, Dr Reid?"

"None of your business, Dr Parker," he shrugged, looking over his sunglasses at me. He stuck his tongue out, his eyes sparking with humour which sent me into a fit of giggles. I glanced over to Morgan again, who's eyes were still flicking between the two of us until they settled on me. He opened his mouth slightly, gaping as realisation flashed across his face.

"That was Garcia, Hotch and JJ are bringing three teenage boys in for questioning," Emily announced, walking back over to the group. "Hotch wants us all there."

I winked at Morgan as I walked past him, heading into the precinct. He just sat there grinning at me, I wasn't bothered if he knew because there was actually no way he could prove it. _Plus_ , he was Spencer's best friend and I'd think to think there was enough trust between them for him to keep his suspicions to himself.

~

We were on the jet headed back home; thankfully it hadn't taken long for one of the boys to crack under the pressure of the interrogation, admitting to all three of the murders we had been investigating.

I took my usual seat next to the window, Spencer sitting across from me reading a book with his glasses on. I placed my phone on the table, pulling out my own book as Emily sat next to me and JJ next to Spencer.

"Who is 'dumbass' and why are they going to show you - oh my god ew I did not need to read that!" Emily exclaimed. My head snapped up, staring at her in horror as my phone was lit up on the table, Spencer's dirty message from before still on display. _Fuck_.

"Um..." I didn't have to fake the embarrassment I was feeling as heat rose to my cheeks. 

"Oh my god Maddie! Have you got a boyfriend!" JJ squealed, grinning at me. Spencer just sat there staring in amusement, his mouth twitching ever so slightly.

"That explains why you're always smiling at your phone and you're never free to hang out with us anymore!" Emily nodded, grinning along with JJ.

"So what if I have a boyfriend," I grumbled, snatching my phone off the table. All I was thinking thank god I had changed his contact name so they didn't know who had actually sent me that text. 

"Why didn't you tell us?" JJ asked, clearly unfazed by my embarrassment.

"Well, who is he?" Emily asked at the same time.

"Uh, he's called Jackson," I offered up, cringing away from this awkward conversation. My heart was beating out of my chest.

"What does he do?" Spencer asked, smirking at me from where he sat. He was enjoying watching me squirm far too much.

"He's an anaesthesiologist," I replied without hesitation, matching his smirk with a cocky grin of my own before turning to look at the girls. "And, I didn't tell you because we've only really kind of being seeing each other for like two months so things are still really knew, I didn't want to jinx it."

"Awwww, look at you finally showing some real emotions," JJ giggled.

"I do have real emotions, what are you talking about!" I frowned, Spencer gave me a look to tell me I was wrong but I couldn't even bring myself to look at him properly.

"No you don't Princess, you're a heartless bitch most of the time," Morgan muttered, leaning against the table next to us. I just gasped, feigning being hurt as I pressed a hand to my chest.

"Not anymore, she's got a boyfriend now," Emily explained, glancing towards Morgan.

"Oh, does she now? How interesting," he grinned at me. I just gave him a warning stare, daring him to say something. "How did you guys meet?"

I scrunched my nose, pretending to think about his question. "We actually met in a cafe, that real cute one at the end of your street Spence." Spencer's face dropped, the grin wiped off his face completely. "He's from New York and he's very, very smart! I've got him totally whipped though, completey wrapped around my little finger." 

"Is he good in bed?" JJ asked, her chin resting in the palm of her hands as she leant forwards on the table. I looked between them all, forcing a sheepish grin on my face before looking at Spencer.

"He's okay," I shrugged, "pretty average but he's good enough, I suppose." The glare I was getting from Spencer was enough to tell me I was in for it when I got home but I didn't care, if anything it was only encouraging me more.

"What do you mean _good enough_?" Emily gaped at me, "you do... you know, right?"

"Sometimes," I rolled my eyes; another complete lie. "He can be kinda selfish in bed at times." 

"Maddie, you need to have some serious words with your man. Go see him tonight and tell him to sort it out." I just grinned at Emily, nodding along with her. I half felt bad for lying to them but the look on Spencer's face was worth it. Or at least I thought it was until he refused to speak a single word to me the rest of the flight home.


	17. Chapter 17

"Why is my contact name 'dumbass' in your phone, Dr Parker?" Spencer finally asked after spending the majority of the drive home ignoring me.

"Because you _are_ a dumbass sometimes," I smirked at him, placing a hand on his arm but his face was stone cold. "If it makes you feel any better its dumbass with a little heart next to it."

"And you think I'm _selfish_ in bed?" His tone told me I'd definitely pushed him too far. _Shit._ "I don't know whether to be impressed or worried about how easily you managed to come up with that whole story about a fake boyfriend as well."

"What was I supposed to say? Oh yeah it's just Spencer, we've been shagging secretly for months and he's _amazing_ in bed by the way! Especially when he ties me up and calls me his dirty little slut!" I almost shouted at him, throwing my hands in the air in exasperation. I honestly couldn't tell if he was just messing with me or if he was genuinely pissed with me, he was still refusing to even look at me.

"Pick a number," he said, pulling into the parking space outside his apartment.

"What?"

"I said, pick a number," he drawled out, finally turning his head to look at me.

"I don't know, three?" I replied, though I said it more of a question than an answer.

"Get inside." I nodded, following him out of the car and up the stairs into his apartment. "I'm adding one to that for having my name as dumbass in your phone so it's now four," he explained like it should be obvious what he was talking about as he led me to his bedroom.

"Four what?" I asked, flopping myself down on his bed.

"You'll see." I gaped at him. I didn't know what game he was planning but I wasn't liking the sound of it.

"Spencer..." My stomach tightened with anticipation as I sat up eagerly.

"You know the safe word?"

" _Obviously_ , you ask me this every time," I grumbled.

"Do you want to make it five?" I shook my head. "Less of the attitude then."

I watched him, my mouth watering, as he carefully laid out an assortment of toys on his bedside table before sliding the box back under the bed. I swallowed hard as he gripped my chin, forcing my head to look at him.

"Strip," he demanded, dragging me off the bed.

"Ask me nicely and maybe I will." I don't know why I thought being ballsy right now was a good idea considering how wound up Spencer was already but I couldn't help myself.

"I wasn't asking you, I'm telling you." He leant against the wall with his arms folded across his chest.

"Fine," I huffed, pulling my top off over my head. I made sure to put on a proper show for him, taking my time as I shimmied out of my trousers - bending over in front of him more times than necessary. He didn't take his eyes off me once, watching every move I made with those bright eyes of his and though his face remained unbothered, I could see the effect I was having on him from the tightness of his trousers as I stood completely naked in front of him.

He pulled his own clothes off too, his hands working quickly to undo his belt before he sat himself down, in just his boxers, on his bed. Straddling his lap, I wrapped my arms around his neck with a sweet, innocent smile.

"Don't smile at me like that, I am not happy with you, at all," he mumbled, pressing a soft kiss to my chest.

"I don't care, Dr Reid," I whispered into his mouth before kissing him deeply, grinding my hips against him. He squeezed my ass cheeks hard, digging his nails in as he grazed my bottom lip with his tongue. I just let out an exaggerated moan in response, pressing myself harder against his bulge.

Spencer pushed my hips up slightly with one hand, bringing his other hand between my legs. He ran his finger through my folds, dragging the wetness he found there, up to my clit where he started rubbing in small circles. I rested my forehead against his as he slipped two fingers inside of me, curling them up to hit my sensitive spot as he started pumping fast. The tension was growing inside my stomach as I neared my climax and I pushed my hips down, trying to get more friction against his fingers but he held me in place, stopping me from moving.

"Are you close?" He murmured, his stubble tickling my face as he pressed a gentle kiss to my cheek. I nodded, running my hands through his hair, tugging gently as I got closer and closer until he suddenly removed his fingers from me, not letting me finish. 

"What the fuck?" I cried out, my eyes snapping open.

"That's one," he replied, grinning wickedly at me. I frowned in confusion, still completely in shock over what had just happened. "I'm going to deny you four times before letting you cum; you know, seeing as I'm so _selfish_ in bed."

"But that's not fair!" I whined, trying to push my hips back down against him. 

He just raised his eyebrows at me. "You brought this on yourself." 

Spencer wrapped an arm around my waist and flipped me over onto my back, his arms pressed into the mattress either side of my head, holding his weight as he hovered over me. I lifted my face to kiss him on the mouth but he pushed me back down by my throat. I just pouted, fluttering my eyelids at him until he kissed me softly, giving in to my puppy dog eyes.

His mouth moved down my neck, leaving a trail of sloppy kisses; his tongue grazing over the marks he left. I arched my back, encouraging him to pay attention to my breasts with his mouth, his teeth nipping at my nipple with his tongue circling around it before doing the same to the other breast. Spencer removed his hand from my neck and placed it on my stomach, holding me down in place as he settled himself between my legs, looking up at me but not actually touching me.

"Please, Spence," I begged, tugging on his hair. 

"If you're going to be pathetic enough to beg for it, use my other name," he murmured, pressing a kiss to the inside of my thigh.

"Oh please Dr Reid, please please _please_!" I moaned dramatically, giggling at myself. 

"Silly bitch," he grinned up at me. His mouth connected with me, replacing where his fingers had just been as he sucked on my clit. Letting go of his hair, I gripped onto the bed sheets, my knuckles turning white as he slid two fingers inside of me again. Spencer never did anything half heartedly, always making sure to give 110% to everything he did and that didn't change when it came to me. The sight of him knelt there, completely lost in me, was pushing me closer to my climax. 

He continued to work me with his tongue; I was almost blinded with pleasure as the familiar knot retuned to my stomach. It was near impossible to hide how close I was getting from Spencer, no matter how hard I tried. I locked my legs together around his shoulders, holding him in place so I could ride out my high but he figured out what I was doing and pulled back, leaving me completely unsatisfied. _Again_.

Spencer's face told me that he was beyond pissed with me now for trying to pull that little stunt but all it was doing was turning me on even more. He gripped the back of my head tightly, grabbing a handful of hair as he hauled me up, forcing me to face him. 

"Stop being such a _fucking brat_ ," he spat, his eyes wild with rage.

"Stop being a _pussy_ and fuck me then," I spat right back. I didn't have chance to prepare myself as his hand came down hard on my face, slapping me across the cheek with his free hand. He froze, his hand still in mid air and his face dropped into a look of complete shock until I turned my head slightly, a wicked grin spreading across my face. "Do it again." 

Spencer smirked at me before slapping me across the face again, even harder this time. The stinging sensation it left was enough to tell me I would have a hand print outline on my cheek. That thought alone was driving me insane and I moved my hand down to between my legs, to give myself what Spencer was denying me but he caught my wrist before I could get close. 

"Don't even _think_ about it." I rolled my eyes, groaning in frustration. "Give me your other hand." I did as I was told, earning myself a pointed look from Spencer at my lack of protest. I just shrugged, sticking my tongue out at him as he grabbed the rope off the bedside table and started wrapping it around my wrists before tying them to the top of the bed frame above my head. He pressed a gentle kiss to my lips again, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. 

Spencer licked his lips, looking me up and down as he pushed my legs apart with his knee. Reaching over to his bedside table, he picked up a vibrator and turned it on to the lowest setting before holding it just millimetres away from me. I bucked my hips, edging myself closer to it, desperate for any sort of pleasure at this point. 

"I swear to god Spencer," I groaned as he moved it away from me. 

He just chuckled, pressing the toy against my clit. I twitched at the sensation, my hands tugging at the ropes. Spencer began moving the toy up and down slightly, causing me to whimper softly, already nearing my orgasm again. There was nothing I could do to stop him as he removed the toy, I was so frustrated that I thought I might cry. I _hated_ not getting what I wanted but I wasn't going to give Spencer the pleasure of knowing what a spoilt brat I actually was, even if I was seconds away from having a full meltdown over it.

"Have you learnt your lesson?" He mumbled between kisses as he pressed his mouth to mine again. I nodded, not trusting my voice to be steady. "What do you want?"

"I want to fucking cum!" I cried out, pulling against the restraints. 

"As you wish, Dr Parker." 

He turned the vibrator up to a higher setting before pushing it against me, moving it in small circles. He'd barely been going for 30 seconds when I started shaking from finally reaching my orgasm, only Spencer didn't move away this time - he held the vibrator there, leaving me a twitching, trembling mess as I came again before even having chance to properly come down from the first time. I let out a string of incoherent groans from the sheer overwhelming pleasure I was feeling. Spencer turned it up to the highest setting, pushing his fingers inside of me at the same time as he coaxed me through my third orgasm, tears prickling my eyes at how overstimulated I was quickly becoming. 

I lied there helplessly as I watched Spencer pull his boxers down, positioning himself at my entrance. He slammed into me, bringing my legs up over his shoulders. I didn't know how much more of this I could take with him ruthlessly pounding into me.

"Fuck- Spencer! I- I can't," I managed to get out. 

"Stop complaining, you asked for this." _True_ , I'd begged for it actually. He continued to pound into me as let out another moan, unable to control myself in any shape or form. Spencer grunted, pushing one hand down to my clit and rubbing it. My head fell back onto the pillows as I can again, my legs shaking like crazy and it wasn't longer before I felt Spencer twitch inside of me, finally finishing himself. 

My chest was heaving when he pulled himself out of me, I was struggling to control my breathing. Spencer noticed and quickly untied my arms and pulled me into his warm embrace. 

"You did so good," he murmured into my hair, kissing the top of my head as he stroked my back. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to take it that far but you did amazing." My body felt so weak, my legs still shaking uncontrollably and when I finally managed to get my breathing under control I was blinded by a sharp throbbing in my head. 

"My head," I mumbled, wincing at the pain.

"Oh shit, I'm sorry." Spencer grabbed a bottle of water and held it in front of me. I just looked at him expectantly, I didn't even have the strength to move my arms. He just smiled sympathetically at me, undoing the bottle and holding it to my mouth for me as I downed half of it in one go. I felt numb, like someone had drained me of any emotions so I just sat there while Spencer pulled one of his Caltech sweatshirts over my head and a pair of his boxers on me while mumbling to me what a good job I'd done. 

"I'm really sorry Mads, four orgasms in such a short space of time was too much," he whispered, pressing kisses on every bit of skin I had on show. I opened my mouth to tell him to stop apologising and I was fine but I felt my eyes roll into the back of my head as I was overcome by sleep.

When I woke up Spencer was still holding me, rambling on to me about a mathematical equation he particularly liked as if I hadn't even fallen asleep. 

"How long was I out?" I croaked, rubbing my eyes as I sat myself up, my muscles already feeling sore.

"Only about 15 minutes, I've ordered us pizza which will be here soon. How are you feeling?" He asked, a concerned look plaguing his face as he forced the other half of the water down me.

"My head still hurts a bit but other than that I'm fine," I shrugged, snuggling into his side. I didn't know how to explain to him that I wasn't actually feeling _anything_.

"I'm really really sorry, I lost control and I shouldn't have," he kissed the top of my hair. 

"Spencer, it's fine! I enjoyed it," I giggled. 

"Maddie, I slapped you across the face. _Twice_."

"I liked it!" I grinned up at him, " _and_ I did ask for the second one." He seemed to relax a little bit, finally believing that I really was okay. 

"Do you want a bath or a shower before we eat?" 

"Bath, please." He nodded, heading into his bathroom to get it started. I moved to follow him but as I stood up my legs started shaking again and almost gave way beneath me, thankfully Spencer was there at my side, taking my weight. I looked up at him, all of my emotions suddenly coming crashing into me again. I felt my bottom lip start to wobble and I couldn't stop myself as I burst into tears for absolutely no reason. 

"Oh, Maddie," Spencer sighed, laughing softly at my very delayed reaction. He scooped me up into his arms, carrying me into the bath which only made me cry even harder. 

"I swear I'm fine," I hiccuped, still crying as Spencer rinsed the shampoo from my hair in the bath. "I don't even know why I'm crying so much."

"It's normal when you have a sub-drop, your body's just reacting to the loss of all the chemicals your brain just released," Spencer explained, grabbing a flannel off the side as he started washing the rest of my body. I just nodded and sniffled, trying my hardest to stop crying. 

The doorbell rang with the pizza after Spencer had helped me out of the bath again, I pulled on the Caltech sweatshirt he had dressed me in before and a fresh pair of boxers before joining him in the kitchen. I slid my self up onto the dining table and grabbed a slice out of the box, giving Spencer a cheeky smile as I wrapped my legs around his waist, pulling him in close to me.

I was digging in to my fourth slice when his doorbell rang again. 

"I'll get it," I grumbled, walking over to the door on my still shaky legs. Taking a bite out of the pizza I opened the door, only to be greeted by Derek Morgan who was leaning against the door frame, grinning at me.


	18. Chapter 18

Morgan looked me up and down as I stood there in Spencer's sweatshirt and boxers, my hair still damp from the bath.

"You have some explaining to do, princess," Derek grinned, walking straight past me as he let himself into Spencer's apartment, the door slamming shut behind him. I just stood there in shock, gaping after him, still holding the slice of pizza in my hand. 

"Maddie, baby, are you okay? Who's at the door?" Spencer asked, coming out from his kitchen. He froze seeing Morgan stood there, grinning at him. He looked at me, moving his hands to cover himself as he realised he was still only wearing a pair of boxers and nothing more. The movement seemed to snap me back to reality. 

"Oh my god, _Spencer_! Go put on some clothes you idiot." He grinned at me, hurrying off to his room. I turned and looked at Morgan, squeezing the bridge of my nose in an attempt to ease my headache that was getting worse again. "What's your plan then? Spend the rest of your night third wheeling with us?"

"I _knew_ it! I just wanted to prove that I was right about you two!" He laughed, making himself comfortable as he sat himself down in an arm chair. I groaned, walking over on my shaking legs to join him. "Why are you walking funny?"

"I'm not," I replied, feigning innocence as I sat down slowly. 

"Oh _shit,_ " he chuckled, shaking his head knowingly. "I take it Spencer wasn't happy with what you said on the jet. "

"Morgan just be quiet, _please,"_ I hissed as Spencer came and sat down next to me, resting his arm over my shoulders. 

"Good for you, pretty boy." I just glared at Morgan. "How long have you two been screwing around behind our backs then?"

"Not even two months," I replied at the same time Spencer said "Since she got back from England." My jaw clenched as I turned my head to look at him, completely dumbfounded as to how someone so smart could be so stupid sometimes. He just smiled apologetically at me. 

"We've been sleeping together since I got back from England but we've been together 'officially' for two months, happy?" I cleared my throat, avoiding Morgan's eye line. 

"Wait, you guys are serious? I thought it was just sex?" I gave Spencer a pointed look, clearly he hadn't been able to keep his mouth shut as well as I thought he had.

"I didn't tell him who..." Spencer grumbled, a soft blush creeping up his cheeks.

"I don't know Morgan, I meant what I said earlier - it's still early. Like, we're together but who knows. I don't think either of us have even had chance to think about it properly." I felt Spencer stiffen slightly beside me.

"Hmm," he sighed. 

"You know you can't tell anyone right?" I asked, chewing on my lip nervously. If Hotch found out, he would definitely transfer me back to Scotland Yard and I honestly couldn't think of anything worse. 

"Don't worry, your secret is safe with me." He grinned. "Well I better go, I've got date with Savannah to get to. I just needed to see it for myself, prove that I'm the best profiler on the team." He grinned to himself proudly, walking towards the door.

"Wow, congratulations on being successful at something that your whole career is based on. Goodbye Morgan, enjoy your date." I slammed the door shut behind him, taking a deep breath before joining Spencer on the sofa again. 

"Maddie..." He looked down at me, his beautiful eyes shining brightly. Spencer took one of my hands in his, playing around with my fingers like he usually did with his own when he was nervous.

"Spencer..." I giggled, matching his voice.

"You're not going to leave me, right?" He asked. 

"What?" My heart dropped. 

"You know, even if things don't work out between us. I don't want you to leave me like everyone else does, I need you in my life. Even if you are just a friend." He looked down at our hands, avoiding facing me. 

"I'm not going anywhere Spence. I'm going to be here always and forever, no matter what." I whispered, squeezing his hand. 

"You promise?"

"Cross my heart." I grinned at him, outlining a cross over my heart in the same way I had done in England. He smiled, repeating the action himself. I reached up to his face, placing my hands on his cheeks as I pulled him in for a soft kiss. 

~

"Hi mum," I said quietly down the phone. It was 6am on the Monday morning which meant it was 11 back home, I'd tried to catch them all together before I headed into work.

"Hi Maddie, you okay? Why are you whispering?" My mum replied, I could hear her pottering about in the kitchen.

"It's really early here and I don't want to wake Spencer up." I was wandering around his living room wearing one of his t shirts and a pair of knickers. Spencer

"You guys are living together already? That's a bit fast don't you think? Oh, he is such a sweet boy though, I think he's good for you." I reached up on my tiptoes, admiring the books on Spencers shelf to distract myself from the conversation.

"We're not living together mum, we're not even together. We're just friends, I always stay over it's not a big deal," I sighed. I felt bad lying to her and I wanted nothing more than to tell her how amazing things are with Spencer but she'd tell Kit and then Kit would tell Garcia. And Garcia does _not_ know how to keep her mouth shut. "How's George?"

"He's surprisingly doing okay, he's been making me dinner and tea nearly every day and he's not been in any fights and he has a _girlfriend_!" She giggled, it was nice to hear her laughing so much. "He's taking care of me and Kit just like you used to."

"I'm sorry I'm not there mum," I sniffled, ignoring the pang of guilt in my stomach. "What are you doing today, are Nanna and Gramps still there?"

Spencer's door creaked open followed by the sound of his soft footsteps padding across the hall as he headed into the kitchen. "Yeah, we're having a BBQ actually, the weather's lovely here today."

"That sounds nice." Spencer walked into the living room, the smell of fresh coffee filling the air as he placed two mugs down on the table. I walked over to him as he sat himself down on the sofa, his hands grabbing my hips gently, pulling me down onto his knee. "I miss you guys."

"We miss you too, Maddie. There was something else I wanted to talk to you about as well," she cleared her throat uncomfortably. "I think I'm going to move back to Greece, with George."

"What? Why?" Spencer tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear and I sighed into his warmth as he placed a comforting hand on my thigh, his thumb moving in small circles. 

"It's too hard here without your Dad. Everything just reminds me of him and I think being with everyone will be good for me." Her voice cracked and she let out a sob. 

"Mum..." I sighed, swallowing hard. "I can move back to England if you need me too, I'll come and help you with everything." 

"It's okay, I'm okay Maddie. You're not coming back here, you have your life in America now and that's fine. It's where you belong. Not forever, just for a year or so, until I can get back on my feet."

"At least you'll be able to keep an eye on Gramps, keep him out of trouble," I chuckled. 

"Hey Madeline!" Kit shouted down the phone, clearly snatching it from mum.

"Oh Jesus, don't tell me you're _drunk_ already, it's 11am you wanker!" I hissed. Spencer rested his forehead against the side of my head, kissing my neck softly.

"I'm not drunk!" He was.

"Liar."

"It's a BBQ, we're obviously going to be drinking."

"And what's your excuse every other day?" I rolled my eyes.

"Ugh you're boring me, goodbye Maddie. Please _don't_ come home anytime soon." He hung up the phone on me and I took a steady breath before turning to look at Spencer.

"You okay?" He murmured, looking at me with his big bright eyes.

"My mum's going back home, to Ekali." I nuzzled into his chest, "I don't think she's coping very well."

"Thats good that she's going then, right? She can be with all her family, are Kit and George going too?"

"George is but I doubt Kit will. Maybe it will give him the kick up the arse he needs to move out and get some independence," I giggled before taking a deep breath, looking up at Spencer. "It's a sixteen hour flight to Greece, that's even further than England. I'm hardly ever going to see them all."

"You will," he insisted. "And, we'll go visit them for Christmas, spend the two full weeks there."

I studied his face. _We_. He said _we,_ as in he was already planning on spending Christmas with me. "What about your mum?"

"We can do thanksgiving with her." He said it so simply, like it was the easiest thing in the world. I couldn't help but smile, if I wasn't already falling in love with this boy, I definitely was now. "Come on pretty girl, we can sort it all out closer to the time. Go get dressed or we're going to be late for work." I squealed as he gave my ass a squeeze, shoving me off him towards the bedroom. 

~

It appeared Morgan really did know how to keep his mouth shut, he even managed to keep his snarky looks and comments to when no one else was around. At least that was one less thing to worry about. Though Spencer and I really didn't help ourselves most of the time, constantly giving each other flirty banter, always finding a way to touch each other. not to mention the few times we stayed late at the office, when it was just the two of us with no one else there. 

It had been over a week since our last case and I was getting bored of doing paperwork and working on cold cases from my desk, not getting anywhere. As much as I loved spending time with Spencer, I'd decided I needed more time with my girls too so we were all going round to Garcia's for drinks tonight.

" _Maddie_!"Garcia shouted, bounding over to me with two huge bottles of alcohol in her hands. "Okay, which would you prefer for tonight? Gin or Tequila?"

"Both," I grinned up at her. 

"And that is why you're my favourite!" She squealed, running off back to her office. 

"You hear that? _I'm_ her favourite," I giggled, leaning over my desk to Spencer. 

"She won't be saying that when she's peeling you off her bathroom floor covered in your own vomit," he retorted, grinning at me as he remembered the last time I had drank tequila. I just frowned, sticking my tongue out at him as I gave him a vulgar gesture. 

Garcia's apartment was one of my favourite places, it was so cozy and comforting and it always smelled amazing from the mass of candles she had lit. Not to mention she had decorated it beautifully. 

"Here you go," she said, passing me another gin, along with two more shots of tequila. I was already tipsy, I'd drank enough to make my head spin slightly, making me feel giddy.

"AH, merci beaucoup ma chérie," I giggled, taking the glass from her hand. I was sat next to JJ on the sofa with my legs crossed, Emily on the chair across from us, Garcia joining her with her own drinks. 

"Okay okay, let's play truth or drink. I want dirty gossip from you all!" Garcia squealed, taking a huge sip from her gin. "Maddie, you're first."

"Oh no," I whispered, taking a sip of my drink in preparation. 

"How many people have you slept with?"

"12," I answered with a shrug. That wasn't too hard.

"JJ, what's the weirdest place you've had sex?" Emily asked, grinning at her. 

JJ frowned, thinking carefully about her reply. "It wasn't sex but Will and I have done some er- _stuff_ in his office at work."

Garcia and Emily's jaws dropped and I smiled, raising my glass to JJ proudly as I nodded my head. 

"Oh come on you two, you can't possibly say you've never done anything at the office! Garcia you literally dated someone who also works there!" I demanded, finishing off my drink. 

"No I haven't, because it's work! And work is a clean, sanitary place where nothing sexual should ever happen!" Garcia replied, still in shock. 

"And you have, Maddie?" Emily asked, looking at me suspiciously. 

"Uh, no but I'm just saying I would." Emily's face told me she didn't believe me and I just hoped that she would get so drunk that she wouldn't remember what I'd said by tomorrow. 

The rest of the game carried on like that for a little while longer. No, Garcia had never cheated on someone. Yes, Emily has faked an orgasm. JJ was 17 when she lost her virginity. Yes, I did have 'special toys' that I liked to use. We were all absolutely smashed and had somehow all ended up sat on Garcia's floor in a circle, laughing hysterically at nothing in no time at all.

"Okay," I giggled, catching my breath. "I have a bit of a confession for you guys."

"What is it?" Emily asked whilst the other two looked at me concerned. 

"So, you know how on the jet the other week we were talking about my boyfriend and how he wasn't very good in bed?"

"Yeah..."

"Well, I kinda lied about it because I was embarrassed. But he is _amazing_ in bed, like the best I've ever had," I giggled again, my mind wandering to Spencer. I was definitely too drunk to be talking about this but my brain wouldn't stop. "It's his hands you know, god he knows how to use them. Especially when they're wrapped around my throat."

"Wait, what?" Garcia's jaw dropped again. "Do you actually do that," she whispered, "while you're having sex?"

"Yeah... unless I've asked to be like tied up or something, then his hands are usually busy elsewhere."

"You _ASK_ for that?" JJ gaped at me. 

I nodded enthusiastically, finishing yet another drink. "I mean he usually doesn't do what I ask straight away because he thinks I'm a brat but, he gives in eventually, and most of the time I know how to make him give me what I want."

"I did not think you would be into stuff like that Maddie," Emily replied, I just shrugged at them all.

"I'll admit, there is something about handcuffs that gets me going though. When I see them hanging from Will's belt it drives me absolutely crazy," JJ explained. "But, I can't say I think I'd enjoy being choked."

"Yeah, me too." Emily agreed. "Something about not being in control or if you're the one using them then it's about being in control." I raised my eyebrows at her, I'd bet anything she was the dominant 'top' in her relationships most of the time. 

"Oh yeah," I grinned at them all. " _Jackson_ loves it too. He calls me his dirty little slut and even spat in my mouth once." I was proud that I'd actually remembered the fake name I'd given him considering my highly intoxicated mental state, not quite so proud that I'd admitted I enjoy being spat on. The girls all looked at me with horrified expressions and if I had any shred of dignity left I would have felt slightly embarrassed. But I didn't - thanks to the gin and tequila I'd been drinking all night. 

"I really do like him though," I sighed, smiling to myself. "I think I might be falling for him. He just makes me so happy."

"Awww!" Garcia squealed, wrapping an arm around me. 

"It's so weird and I'm glad you're happy but I really thought you would end up with Spencer," JJ admitted, Emily nodding along with her in agreement.

I frowned. "Why?"

"I don't know," she sighed. "You both just seem to bring out the best in each other and you just seem so well suited."

"And I know for a fact he used to have a crush on you, he looks at you with complete adoration all of the time!" Garcia added.

"Maddie, you told me you had a crush on him too!" Emily exasperated, throwing her hands in the air dramatically.

"Wait, didn't something happen between you guys in England? Kit text me saying he'd walked in on you both!" Garcia squealed. 

I froze. "No, nothing happened. He's my best friend." I tried to play it off casually but I couldn't tell if it was working. "I don't know what Kit thinks he saw but definitely nothing happened."

They all looked like they didn't believe me but it didn't matter because chances are none of us would remember this is morning. 


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> hey, SOZ for the slow updates, I have opened a little shop on Etsy selling hand written letters from comfort characters so between that, working in the hospital and all my uni work I've had legit no time lol but I'm back, enjoy this soft chapter xx PS if any of u are interested, my Etsy is LilsWrites xxxx

"And where are we going to this time, baby girl?" I mocked, beating Morgan to his line as Garcia walked into the conference room. 

It had been over a month since our girls night and thankfully nothing else had been said spoken about what had been said. they'd all either completely forgotten, or they were just good enough friends not to mention it. I didn't really care which as long as they all kept their mouths shut.

Morgan slapped my arm playfully with a smirk, causing me to laugh as I dramatically clutched my arm feigning being hurt, earning myself an over exaggerated eye roll from all of the boys.

"That is so much hotter coming out of your mouth," Garcia replied, smirking down at me. I just grinned at her, giving her a wink before turning to Morgan, looking him up and down with the cockiest look I could muster up.

"Alright, Garcia what have we got?" Hotch interrupted, letting out an exasperated sigh.

"The bodies of four prostitutes have been found with their throats slashed in downtown Las Vegas." My head snapped towards Spencer and I couldn't hide the grin that spread across my face, mirroring his own. 

"Oh my God! Yay! We're going to Vegas! Does this mean I finally get to meet your mum?" I squealed, getting overexcited before I noticed the stares I was getting from the rest of the team at my highly inappropriate response. "Oh, I mean that's awful... those poor girls," I mumbled, grimacing slightly.

"Jesus Christ, kiddo," Rossi sighed, burying his head in his hands. 

"Be quiet, old man," I quipped in response. 

"We'll look at this further on the jet, wheels up in 30," Hotch announced before walking out of the room, Rossi closely following.

"Well? _Are_ we going to see your mum?" I asked, wheeling my chair across the room next to Spencer.

"Maybe, I'll give her a call and see if she's feeling up for a visit," he replied, smiling at me.

"That'll be nice Spence, it's been a while since you've got to see her," JJ added, ruffling up his hair as she headed off towards the jet with Emily, Garcia and Morgan. 

I was staring at Spencer, giddily bouncing my leg up and down as I watched him start to pack up his belongings. "Aren't you excited to see your mum?" I asked. 

"Yeah, of course I am. I'm excited for you to meet her too," he replied, smiling up at me in a way that sent butterflies to my stomach. "But, I'm professional enough to contain my excitement for when we are alone and _not_ in a meeting discussing murders."

"Oh please, you're acting like I haven't said worse in this conference room before." In all fairness, that was quite polite compared to some of the things I'd said. I really needed to learn how to think before speaking. 

"You're lucky you're cute," he mumbled as I reached up on my tiptoes, pressing a quick kiss to his soft lips. 

"And smart, and funny and just straight up amazing," I grinned, throwing my bag over my shoulder.

"And so modest too," he mocked, following me out of the conference room towards the jet.

~

"Fucking hell, it's bloody mafting out here! Is it always this hot in Vegas?" I groaned, wiping the sweat off my brow. The heat was stifling, to the point where I had stripped down into a white vest top, switching out my black jeans and heavy boots for some light brown trousers and some converse. My hair was pulled off my neck in a high pony tail in a poor attempt to cool down. Spencer seemed completely unphased by it though, still rocking his long sleeved shirt and knitted sweater vest. 

"I did not understand a single word of what you just said to me," Rossi replied, looking at me with the most confused look on his face. I just shrugged, sticking my tongue out at him.

"Yes Maddie, it _is_ a desert. It's pretty much hot here all year round. We only get about 57 days on average of rain a year which is about 5 inches of rainfall compared to the national US average of 38 inches per year," Spencer said, coming up from behind me as we headed towards the dumpsite of the last body. 

"Huh, interesting. In England, it rains almost 200 days out of the year," I nodded along with him. "I love the rain though, my favourite weather." I was struggling to pull my gloves on over my sweaty hands. Sighing in defeat, I opted to go talk to the police officers instead, leaving Spencer and Rossi to deal with the body.

"Hey, I'm Maddie, it's nice to meet you," I said, smiling at the two officers as I held up my ID to them both. 

"Hi," the dark skinned, brunette woman replied, looking me up and down with a bright smile. "I'm Naila, this is Jason. I _love_ your trousers!"

"Thank you! I don't know how you guys are coping in your uniforms in this heat, I'm sweating like god knows what," I giggled, returning her smile. "Who found the body?"

"Janitor of the motel," Jason replied, clearly not in the mood for our girly gossip. "He found them all in the exact same place, completely naked with their throats slashed."

"They were all found here, at this motel?" I asked, shielding my eyes from the sun with my hand.

"Yeah, this is a pretty well known motel for taking prostitutes to. It's got a bad reputation because they take last minute bookings in cash and stuff, cheap and easy," Naila added.

"Yeah, I bet they were," I mumbled under my breath, getting a chuckle out of the two of them. "I'm going to go talk to the receptionist, see if I can have a look through the books and everything. Thank you for your help!"

"Good luck getting anything out of him, we already tried. He's not giving anything up," Jason stated, folding his arms across his chest. "Bit sketchy if you ask me."

"No one was asking you, Jason," Naila grumbled. 

"Oh well, I'll still try." I gave him a half smile, just pressing my lips up together slightly - a habit I'd picked up from Spencer. "Thanks again!"

"You're welcome, it was nice to meet you!" Naila called after me as I headed back over to Rossi and Spencer. 

"I'm gonna go talk to the receptionist inside, see if I can have a look through the bookings and stuff, okay?" I said. 

"Sure, we'll come with you. We're done here anyway," Spencer replied, chucking his gloves into the bin. 

"Find anything?" I asked, waving to Naila over my shoulder as we walked past them. 

"Not really, the wound is one clean slash so the unsure has to be fairly strong and there is no blood around the body so they were killed into a separate location and then brought here," Spencer explained. 

"We presume in this motel, even for someone strong, a dead body is a heavy thing to carry even a small distance," Rossi added, holding the door open for me. 

A small, scrawny man stood at the front desk. He looked like the definition of a pervert: tiny features, grubby facial hair and grimy clothes. I'd bet anything he hadn't showered in a long time and had some sort of criminal record. I wasn't surprised at all the the officers hadn't gotten any information out of him, I doubted he could even hold a proper conversation for longer than two minutes. 

"Hi, I'm SSA David Rossi with the FBI," Rossi said holding up his badge to the young man. "This is SSA Dr Reid and SSA Dr Parker. We're investigating the murders of the bodies that were found outside here, do you mind if we have a look around and go through the paperwork and everything?"

"I already told those cops out there that I don't know nothing," the young man said nervously. "I can't show you the book, it's confidential. For the safety of the visitors, you know?"

"Right..." Rossi mumbled, looking around the entrance. Spencer gave me a look before wandering off to look at the security tape. I rolled my eyes at him before plastering a cute smile on my face, walking over to the desk.

"Hi, I'm Maddie. What's your name?" I asked, folding my arms across the desk in front of the creepy man. 

"I'm Leon," he replied, not meeting my eyes. "You don't look much like a cop."

"That's because i'm not a cop," I shrugged. "Do you mind if I come sit round the back there with you?" I didn't even give him chance to protest as I flopped down into the chair next to him, picking up a pen off his desk. "Can you do me a really big favour?" I asked, batting my eyelids at him, feigning innocence.

"Uh, yeah I guess," he replied a bit too eagerly, licking his lips. 

"Please may I have a look through the bookings you were talking about?" I tucked my hair behind my ear, looking up at him sweetly.

"I dunno', I'm really not supposed to show anyone."

"Please," I whined, placing a hand on his arm. "I really need to look good for the big boss over there." I nodded my head towards Rossi. "Look, I'm the only girl on a team full of men, they all already think I'm just some dumb little girl and maybe if I find something in there they might actually start treating me like a real member of the team."

He sighed, chewing on his lip slightly as he thought about it. I tried my hardest to look as sweet and pleading as I could. Clearly pleading, pretending to be an outsider had worked as he caved, nodding at me as he handed me the book.

"I dunno' how much you'll find, most people use fake names and pay in cash," he explained.

"Thank you so much," I smiled up at him brightly. To my surprise, he actually smiled back, revealing a set of yellow, damaged teeth with more gaps in it than actual teeth. 

I flicked through the book he'd given me, looking for any similarities or cross overs with names or handwriting on the pages. 

"Hey Leon, do you remember this man? David Brown?" I asked, spotting that the same name had been used four times, all on the dates when the bodies had been found. 

"Oh yeah, he comes in quite a bit. He always came in with a woman as well. I never asked for ID though so I don't know if that's his real name, but he dressed real smart like he has a real fancy job," he replied. 

"Do you remember what he looked like? Or the women he was with?" I rambled on, "Spencer, come here, look! Do you have the pictures of the victims?" Spencer nodded, trading me the book for the photos as I showed them to Leon. 

"Uh, yeah they were the women he was with. He was a tall man, bit of a beard with brown hair." He looked at me and I smiled at him encouragingly, thanking him graciously.

"Amazing Leon! Thank you so much, you've been a great help. Do you think you could describe him to a sketch artist for us?" I asked, pulling out my phone ready to call Garcia. 

"Uh, sure I guess."

"Garcia, my sweet angel, I need you to search something for me," I said down the phone as she answered.

**~SPENCER~**

Spencer watched Maddie through the two way glass of the interrogation room as she slid into the chair opposite the unsub. She'd figured it out, again. She never failed to amaze Spencer with the power of her brain. Yes, on paper, he was the smarter one but Maddie had an intelligence way beyond anything Spencer had ever known. The way she could read people and change her whole self in order to manipulate them into giving her what she wanted, the way she could read and prey on people's weakness's until they were spilling their deepest darkest secrets to her. The way she could just smile at people and make them melt into the palm of her hands. She was incredible. 

Right now was one of those times, it was almost like she was a completely different person sat across from the unsub, her face hard and stern. Spencer watched in awe as she knew exactly what to say in order to get under his skin, her confidence never faltering even as he got in her face. 

"I love the way her brain works," Spencer whispered to Derek as he came up beside him. "She's so amazing, isn't she?"

“She is,” Derek agreed. “Remember when you were her age? You couldn’t even look at an unsub without shitting your pants!”

”I know,” Spencer said, still gazing at Maddie.

"You really like her, huh?" Derek replied, patting Spencer on the shoulder. 

"Yeah, I do," he sighed, turning to look at Derek. "I'm taking her to meet my mom later."

"Really? Congrats man, you deserve to be happy!" He grinned at Spencer. "Why don't you look excited about it?"

"Look at her! And look at me! I just don't get it, she's beautiful and she's got so much confidence, she could literally have anyone she wanted... what if she realises that she could do better and leaves me? Just like everyone else." Spencer took a shaky breath, trying to calm himself down so other people didn't overhear the conversation.

"Stop being so hard on yourself, pretty boy, you're amazing too. Besides, even if she could have anyone, I know for a fact she would still choose you. Ever since that girl first laid her eyes on you she has been in love with you, you're pretty stupid if you can't see it. You two were made for each other."

"And there you have it boys, _that_ is how you get a murder confession in less than 5 minutes. That's gotta be some kind of record, right?" Maddie announced, sauntering out of the interrogation room, looking all too pleased with herself.

"No way," Derek gaped at her. Spencer just stood there, grinning at her proudly. 

"Yes way," she replied, flicking her hair over her shoulder as she walked past the two of them with a smirk. Spencer was so in love with her, whether he wanted to admit it or not. Maybe it was the way she carried herself, with absolutely no fear of anything or maybe it was just because of how beautiful she was but Maddie had a sparkle about her. She glowed, Spencer thought, she stood out from everyone everywhere she went. 

"What?" She asked, noticing his stares. 

"Nothing, just thinking." 

"That's dangerous," she giggled, sticking her tongue out at him. He couldn't help but smile at her, her happiness was intoxicating, especially when he was thinking about all the dirty things she could do with that tongue when it was just the two of them. "Come on, let's go! The quicker we get finished up here the quicker we can go meet your mum!"

"Yes _sir_ ," Spencer mocked.

"That's Yes _Doctor,_ to you," she smirked. Spencer grinned, following her as she headed to join the rest of the team, looking back at Derek who was stood there grinning at them both brightly. 


End file.
